Word of the Day for Friday, August 17, 2012

phthisis \THAHY-sis\, noun:
1. A wasting away.
2. Pulmonary tuberculosis; consumption.

At last Sister Hyacinthe began to speak of the immediate and complete cures of phthisis, and this was the triumph, the healing of that terrible disease which ravages humanity…
-- Robert Hugh Benson, "Lourdes"

Apoplexy is no longer to be feared, but phthisis is there. Social phthisis is called misery.
-- Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables"

Phthisis comes from the Greek root phthí which meant "to decay."

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