| 释义 |
marasmus|məˈræzməs|
[mod.L., a. Gr. µαρασµός, f. µαραίνειν to wither, waste.]
a. Wasting away of the body, esp. in undernourished children.
1656Trapp Comm. Job xix. 20 (1657) 171 Now, alas, I lie under a miserable Marasmus. 1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 29 Diverse having kept them in their beds, have got an hectick feaver or marasmus thereby. 1753N. Torriano Gangr. Sore Throat 76 How often was I apprehensive, Miss Blossac would fall into a Marasmus or a Languor? 1837Syd. Smith Let. Archd. Singleton Wks. 1859 II. 268/2 Everybody has their favourite death: some delight in apoplexy, and others prefer marasmus. 1856Athenæum 26 Apr. 515 The milk itself has been yielded by stalled cows dying of marasmus. 1902W. G. Thompson Pract. Dietetics (ed. 2) viii. 564 Marasmus is a form of starvation occurring chiefly in artificially fed infants, but also in those at the breast, in whom there is great wasting of the muscular and other soft tissues. 1951R. W. B. Ellis Dis. in Infancy & Childhood vii. 254 Marasmus (Infantile atrophy). This is a condition of extreme and chronic malnutrition, and whilst it often arises simply from underfeeding, it may also be due to a variety of other causes, e.g. congenital syphilis..or parasitic infection. It is not therefore a disease sui generis but a clinical picture of which it is first necessary to determine the etiology. 1968Meneghello & Rizzardini in A. Dorfman Child Care in Health & Dis. iii. 42 Almost all children in Chile suffer from so-called caloric-protein malnutrition, or marasmus, and this form of malnutrition is the major problem in Chile... The other form, protein malnutrition or kwashiorkor, is the most common type in other countries of the region. 1971Sci. Amer. Oct. 14/3 They have advanced the understanding of the starvation disease called marasmus, which is increasing in many developing countries because mothers are giving up prolonged breast-feeding and their infants are not receiving an adequate substitute diet during a critical time in development.
b. transf. and fig.
1681Nevile Plato Rediv. 24, I am one of those Unskilful Persons, that cannot discern a State Marasmus, when the danger is so far off. 1885tr. Hehn's Wand. Pl. & Anim. 23 The notion that there is any such thing as a senile marasmus of nature. |