Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as phthisical.
  • noun A consumption or wasting away; phthisis.
  • noun A person affected with phthisis.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as phthisis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology A wasting illness of the lungs, such as asthma or tuberculosis; phthisis.
  • noun pathology, formerly Any wasting disease.
  • noun A person suffering from phthisis.
  • noun Any wasting or shrinking of another body part such as, for example, the eye (phthisis bulbi).
  • adjective Of or relating to phthisis or tuberculosis; tubercular.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English ptisike, from Old French ptisique, from phthisicus, consumptive, from Greek phthisikos, from phthisis, wasting away, consumption; see phthisis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English tisike, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin phthisicus ("suffering from tuberculosis"), from Ancient Greek φθισικός (phthisikos, "consumptive"), from φθίσις (phthisis, "tuberculosis, consumption")

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Examples

  • On the one hand it was denounced as an epicurean and obnoxious toy from England, designed to corrupt the democratic simplicity of the Republic, and on the other hand it was attacked by the medical faculty as dangerous to health and a certain inviter of “phthisic, rheumatic fevers, inflammation of the lungs and the whole category of zymotic diseases.”

    August « 2008 « Isegoria 2008

  • “From a great distance, with a tranquilizer dart,” said Hillovi, with a stoned wink and a laugh that sounded more like the barking of a phthisic sea lion.

    THE BOYS FROM SANTA CRUZ Jonathan Nasaw 2010

  • “From a great distance, with a tranquilizer dart,” said Hillovi, with a stoned wink and a laugh that sounded more like the barking of a phthisic sea lion.

    THE BOYS FROM SANTA CRUZ Jonathan Nasaw 2010

  • “From a great distance, with a tranquilizer dart,” said Hillovi, with a stoned wink and a laugh that sounded more like the barking of a phthisic sea lion.

    THE BOYS FROM SANTA CRUZ Jonathan Nasaw 2010

  • On the one hand it was denounced as an epicurean and obnoxious toy from England, designed to corrupt the democratic simplicity of the Republic, and on the other hand it was attacked by the medical faculty as dangerous to health and a certain inviter of “phthisic, rheumatic fevers, inflammation of the lungs and the whole category of zymotic diseases.”

    Is H.L. Mencken Alive and Well at the NYT? « Isegoria 2008

  • “From a great distance, with a tranquilizer dart,” said Hillovi, with a stoned wink and a laugh that sounded more like the barking of a phthisic sea lion.

    THE BOYS FROM SANTA CRUZ Jonathan Nasaw 2010

  • He wavered along on a stick, planted before him with a blue phthisic hand.

    Thomas Wolfe’s ‘Angel’ of Death - Paper Cuts Blog - NYTimes.com 2009

  • He wavered along on a stick, planted before him with a blue phthisic hand.

    Thomas Wolfe’s ‘Angel’ of Death - Paper Cuts Blog - NYTimes.com 2009

  • I shall present myself at your house in Rouen whose address I had from M. Bouilhet who knows me well having come to see me in his youth he will tell you that I have the phthisic still agreeably and always faithful to all who knew me whether in the civil or in the military and in these sentiments for life your affectionate

    The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters 2003

  • S-ure has been calling him "Yankee pig" all day now, a hilarious joke he will not leave alone, often getting no further than "Yank -" before collapsing into some horrible twanging phthisic wheeze of a laugh, coughing up alarming ropy lungers of many colors and marbling effects-green, for example, old-statue green at leafy dusk.

    Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

Comments

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  • "His hand pumps mine, his a meaty, insensitive hand, the exact opposite of the Hand's phthisic arm which only now releases me."

    Forgetting Elena by Edmund White, p 105 of the Vintage International paperback edition

    November 21, 2009

  • "You, Ishmail, phthisic pawn, glutton for musty old manuscripts, puny scribbling runt, martyr to a myriad of sulks, doldrums and mulligrubs, you who lit out, packing just a smock, four shirts and a cotton hanky in your bag. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition

    August 11, 2010