measles
UK /ˈmiːzəlz/ · US /ˈmizəlz/ noun
Forms measle the measles measels
- noun (pathology) An acute and highly contagious disease which often afflicts children caused by the virus Measles morbillivirus and causing red rashes, fever, runny nose, coughing, and red eyes.
- noun (veterinary medicine) Synonym of cysticercosis: A disease of livestock or meat caused by the presence of tapeworm larvae.
- noun (botany, obsolete) Any disease causing a tree's bark to become rough and irregular.
- noun (US, espionage jargon) A discreet assassination made to look like death from natural causes.
- noun (pathology, obsolete) Any disease causing red rashes.
- noun (obsolete) Used as an intensifier.
Synonyms
Etymology
Either from Middle Dutch masels (“blood blisters, measels”) or Middle Low German maselen (“red blemishes, measels”), both from Old High German masala (“blood blister, phlegmon”). Doublet of measlings. Cognate with mazer & mase and Middle Low German masele & māsel. Influenced in pronunciation and some senses by mesel (“leprous, leper”).
From Middle English mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Norman mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Old French mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Late Latin misellus (“leper”), from miser (“wretched, wretch”) + -ellus (“-elle”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Leprosy; also, a leper. [Obs.]
- noun A contagious febrile disorder commencing with catarrhal symptoms, and marked by the appearance on the third day of an eruption of distinct red circular spots, which coalesce in a crescentic form, are slightly raised above the surface, and after the fourth day of the eruption gradually decline; rubeola.
- noun A disease of cattle and swine in which the flesh is filled with the embryos of different varieties of the tapeworm.
Etymology [From lst Measle.]
Etymology [D. mazelen; akin to G. masern, pl., and E. mazer, and orig. meaning, little spots. See Mazer.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “measles”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details