measles
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmizəlz/
ipa: /ˈmiːzəlz/
Forms: form: measle
form: the measles
form: measels
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”).
Senses: examples: text: Maybe it's the 'measles. They say they're going around the neighborhood.
ref: 1970, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, page 78:
text: Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it.
ref: 1986, Roald Dahl, Measles: A Dangerous Illness:
text: In the camps a case of measles is defined as a generalized rash of three or more days duration, with a fever of at least 38.8°C.., and any one of the following: cough, coryza or conjunctivitis.
ref: 1990, International Journal of Epidemiology, volume 19, page 1073:
text: Although the MMR vaccine was introduced in 1988, Britain offered separate measles injections until 1999.
ref: 2002 February 10, Sarah Lyall, “Britain Tries to Quell Fear Over Vaccine for Children”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 14 Feb 2021:
topics: medicine
pathology
sciences
glosses: 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.
topics: medicine
pathology
sciences
glosses: Any disease causing red rashes.
examples: text: Why the meazills, should you stand heere, with your traine...
ref: 1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
glosses: Used as an intensifier.
examples: text: The Swyne dyed of the Measils.
ref: 1641, Ben Jonson, Timber:
text: Porcine measles, thought by classical writers to be leprosy, is actually the result of tapeworm cysts which cause ulcerations of the pig's tongue.
ref: 1992, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated by Anthea Bell, The History of Food, page 416:
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
sciences
veterinary
zoology
glosses: Synonym of cysticercosis: A disease of livestock or meat caused by the presence of tapeworm larvae.
synonyms: word: cysticercosis
extra: A disease of livestock or meat caused by the presence of tapeworm larvae
examples: text: Their fruit-trees are subject to two diseases, the Meazels... and lowsiness.
ref: 1674, John Josselyn, An Account of Two Voyages to New-England, page 190:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: Any disease causing a tree's bark to become rough and irregular.
examples: text: Others take a fether, and dippe it in the saide water, and therwith they annoynte all the Measells of the Face when they are come forth.
ref: 1599, "A.M." translating Osswald Gäbelkhover as The Boock of Physicke, p. 277
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: plural of measle: a red spot forming part of a rash, (now) particularly those caused by M. morbillivirus.
examples: text: Measles. When prints are imperfectly fixed, the appearance presented is very similar to that of the same disease in the human subject. Hence the name.
ref: 1867, Thomas Sutton et al., Dictionary of Photography, page 217:
text: The stars, like measles, fade at last.
ref: 1929, Samuel Hoffenstein, “Mr Walter de la Mare”, in Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing, page 147:
text: The Lady Tofaa also had a red measle of paint on her forehead between her eyes.
ref: 1984, Gary Jennings, The Journeyer, page 671:
text: How do I get the measles out of an Indian paper print, Lovejoy?... Measles is trade nickname for foxing, those brown spots... that trouble books, prints, and watercolors.
ref: 1990, John Grant, The Very Last Gambado, page 125:
glosses: plural of measle: any similar-looking red spot, particularly (printing) foxing.
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
sciences
veterinary
zoology
glosses: plural of measle: the individual cysts of cysticercosis.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: plural of measle: the individual blisters in the surface of a diseased tree's bark.
examples: text: […] they would prefer having him "die of the measles," as wags at the CIA put it, than be punished by legal means. If there is no convenient way of administering the "measles," they may even favor simply letting him go.
ref: 1975, Miles Copeland, Beyond Cloak and Dagger: Inside the CIA, page 204:
text: Such final solutions, sometimes referred to as termination with extreme prejudice, are known in the CIA as dying of the measles — that is, the death appears to be of natural causes.
ref: 1977, Raymond Edward Palmer, The Making of a Spy, page 99:
topics: espionage
government
military
politics
war
glosses: A discreet assassination made to look like death from any natural cause.
Synonyms: sense: disease caused by M. morbillivirus
word: morbilli
sense: disease caused by M. morbillivirus
word: rubeola
sense: disease caused by M. morbillivirus
word: measlings
word: the dickens
Hyponyms: sense: disease caused by M. morbillivirus
word: red measles
sense: disease caused by M. morbillivirus
word: 7-day measles
sense: disease caused by M. morbillivirus
word: 10-day measles
sense: disease caused by M. morbillivirus
word: hard measles
sense: any disease causing red rashes
word: German measles
Derived terms: 3-day measles
antimeasles
beef measles
black measles
blue measles
false measles
French measles
German measles
Liberty measles
measleslike
measles party
measly
porcine measles
postmeasles
sheep measles
three-day measles