Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A fatal progressive, degenerative neurological disease caused by a slow-acting virus, found in certain peoples of New Guinea and transmitted by cannibalism.
Wiktionary
- n. A chronic, progressive, fatal central nervous system disease found mainly among the Fore and neighboring peoples of New Guinea, caused by a prion that probably resembles the scrapie agent of sheep, transmissible to nonhuman primates, and believed to be transmitted by ritual cannibalism.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a progressive disease of the central nervous system marked by increasing lack of coordination and advancing to paralysis and death within a year of the appearance of symptoms; thought to have been transmitted by cannibalistic consumption of diseased brain tissue since the disease virtually disappeared when cannibalism was abandoned
Etymologies
- From Fore, literally meaning ‘shaking death’. (Wiktionary)
- Fore (language of eastern Papua New Guinea). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
““In New Guinea, they had a disease called kuru, transmitted by eating the brains of their enemies.””
“But even more gruesome, cannibals in New Guinea in the 1950s started dying of kuru, which is caused by eating contaminated human brain tissue.”
“In the middle of the 20th century, the Fore tribe of the Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea was devastated by a CJD-like disease called kuru, which was passed on by mortuary feasts in which the brains of the dead were consumed.”
Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7
“In the middle of the 20th century, the Fore tribe of the Eastern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea was devastated by a mad cow-like disease called kuru, passed on by mortuary feasts in which the brains of the dead were consumed.”
“A community in Papua New Guinea that suffered a major epidemic of a CJD-like fatal brain disease called kuru has developed strong genetic resistance to the disease, according to new research by scientists in the UK.”
“Even though they cooked the bodies before eating them, they still contracted a mysterious fatal illness called "kuru," akin to mad-cow disease.”
“Less than 200 years ago, according to New Scientist, a member of the Fore was born with a gene mutation that protected against kuru.”
“The South Fore people of Papua New Guinea used to eat their dead relatives 'brains as a sign of respect, passing on the deadly prion disease kuru -- a relative of mad cow disease -- in the process.”
“Doctor-patient interaction models are shifting as doctors simultaneously try to educate their patients and try to explain for the 50th time that no, a tic in your eye does not mean you have kuru, now go home and get some rest.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kuru’.
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phrontistery - k
from phrontistery.info
kyrielle, kyrie, kyphosis, kyriolexy, kymograph, kyloe, kyllosis, kylin, kvass, kurtosis, kyphorrhinos, ktenology and 189 more...
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Not 250 Spelling Words Again
Yet more spelling words for intermediate to advanced spellers.
ihi, kyoodle, heimin, feis, menarche, cordwainer, gherao, zythum, accidie, anastomosis, boustrophedon, oleum and 238 more...
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AGRI - animal health
Herod premium, beef consumption, time hung between..., checks on feed, optimal feeding p..., intensive farming, protein-rich feed..., concentrated feed, grass-fed beef ca..., grass silage, farm-animal feed, incorporation pre... and 156 more...
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Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
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50 K for 50K
A list of 50 words featuring the letter K to mark listing my 50,000th entry at Wordie/Wordnik. The 50,000th was kerasine because I'm fond of arcane adjectives. The Irish term kitthoge is a nod to m...
kerasine, killcow, kinkhab, kirking, kinetheodolite, killcrop, klendusic, kitthoge, kish, kistvaen, knickpoint, knosp and 38 more...
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herotuesday's Words
butyraceous, thrasonical, turgid, ululate, irenic, punctilio, discombobulate, ecdysiast, formicate, favonian, agnate, erubescence and 614 more...
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medical conditions
diseases, maladies, complaints
Creutzfeldt–Jakob..., kuru, field's condition, Jumping Frenchman..., Blaschko's lines, piblokto, morgellons, pica, riley-day syndrome, ondine's curse, polydipsia, diphallic terata and 8 more...
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Breadfruit
A delicious and useful fruit and plant! I'm collecting words related to the botany and uses, cultivars, anything really.
breadfruit, arbor de pan, breadnut, chataignier, pao de massa, broodvrucht, castano de malabar, pan de todo el ano, tupan, mazapan, sukun, marure and 58 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for kuru.
bilby BSE!!! *runs*
But you have to love the home URL of that site, the most compact I have ever come across: www.ck Jan 28, 2009
sionnach Are the prions mushed in with the "breadfruit"? And does this mean we should be talking about breadfruit spongiform encephalopathy? Jan 28, 2009
bilby A Cook Islands term for breadfruit. Recipe ideas here. Jan 28, 2009
chained_bear A more recent example of a similar disease. Sep 10, 2008
sionnach It turns out that snacking on the brains of your dead ancestors might not be such a great idea. Jan 22, 2008
herotuesday Mad-human disease! Sep 25, 2007