† ramollissementn.
Pathology. Obsolete.
Abnormal softening or loss of density of all or part of an organ, esp. the brain. Cf. malacia n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > [noun] > alteration of tissue > softening
softening1655
mollities1807
ramollissement1826
mollescence1829
malacia1889
1826 Lancet 29 July 568/1 The situation of the ‘ramollissement’ then, in the present case, appears to be in some part of the medulla spinalis.
1834 S. Cooper Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 357 The black ramollissement or disease, in which the liver is reduced to a dark-coloured mass, of very little consistence.
1874 F. Barker Puerperal Dis. 205 I am fully in accord with Dr. Snelling as to the probability that a certain degree of relaxation and ramollissement of the symphysis occurs in many pregnant women.
1883 T. S. Clouston Clin. Lect. Mental Dis. 107 A paralysis of the sense of well-being and the enjoyment of life, a difficulty in coming to decisions,..a loss of memory, and a subacute mental pain, I have seen to exist for two years before a man showed any diagnostic signs of brain ramollissement or tumour.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online September 2020).
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n.1826