"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Monday, 23 November 2009

Cachexy

 
Cachexy (pronounced Catch-ecksy) is an archaic term which I came across in Dr Johnson’s dictionary. He described it as being “a general word to express a great variety of symptoms, most commonly it denotes such a distemperature of the humours, as hinders nutrition, and weakens the vital and animal functions, proceeding from weakness of the fibres, and an abuse of the non-naturals, and often from severe acute distempers.”
I think that means ‘ill’ !
“I wonder what would be the reaction if I told my fellow bloglings I was suffering from cachexy?”

 

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