cholera
UK /ˈkɒləɹə/ · US /ˈkɑləɹə/ noun
Forms choleras
- noun (pathology) Any of several acute infectious diseases of humans and domestic animals, caused by certain strains of the Vibrio cholerae bacterium through ingestion of contaminated water or food, usually marked by severe gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and dehydration.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Latin cholera (“bilious disease”), from Ancient Greek χολέρα (kholéra, “cholera”). Doublet of choler.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of several diseases affecting the digestive and intestinal tract and more or less dangerous to life, esp. the one commonly called Asiatic cholera. Asiatic cholera, a malignant and rapidly fatal disease, originating in Asia and frequently epidemic in the more filthy sections of other lands, to which the germ or specific poison may have been carried. It is characterized by diarrhea, rice-water evacuations, vomiting, cramps, pinched expression, and lividity, rapidly passing into a state of collapse, followed by death, or by a stage of reaction of fever.
Etymology [L., a bilious disease. See Choler.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cholera”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details