Working against tuberculosis or wasting diseases, especially as a medical treatment.
From Greek anti- (against) + phthisis (tuberculosis, wasting away). The word phthisis literally meant consumption of the body, and the prefix anti- indicates opposition to this disease.
Before modern antibiotics, doctors desperately searched for 'antiphthisic' remedies because tuberculosis killed millions—some tried everything from mountain air to cod liver oil. This word is a time capsule from when TB was the leading cause of death in the developed world.
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