white plague
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- Tuberculosis, especially pulmonary tuberculosis: A serious infectious disease primarily affecting the lungs, characterized by symptoms such as coughing, fever, weight loss, and progressive physical decline. This is the primary and historical meaning.
- (Archaic/Slang) Addiction to a narcotic drug: A dated or informal term for a severe addiction to drugs, particularly opiates, drawing a metaphorical comparison to the wasting effects of tuberculosis.
Usage Examples
Noun (Tuberculosis): In the 19th century, the white plague claimed countless lives before the discovery of antibiotics.The symptoms of the white plague include a persistent cough and night sweats.
Noun (Drug Addiction): (Archaic) He lost everything to the white plague, his body and mind consumed by opium.
Advanced Usage
- The term "white plague" is now considered archaic in medical contexts. The modern term is tuberculosis or TB.
- Its use to describe drug addiction is largely historical or literary, emphasizing the debilitating and consumptive nature of severe addiction.
Variants and Related Words
- Tuberculosis (TB): The modern medical term for the disease.
- Consumption: Another historical synonym for pulmonary tuberculosis.
- Phthisis: An archaic medical term for tuberculosis.
Synonyms
- Tuberculosis (for the disease meaning)
- Consumption (historical synonym)
- Addiction, dependency (for the drug meaning)
Notes on Meaning
- The term's primary definition refers to the disease tuberculosis. The reference to drug addiction is a secondary, metaphorical usage that likens the destructive nature of addiction to that of the historical disease. In contemporary English, "white plague" is rarely used; "tuberculosis" or "TB" is standard for the disease, and terms like "opioid addiction" or "substance use disorder" are used for the condition of addiction.
Noun
- an addiction to a drug (especially a narcotic drug)
- involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body