A serious fungal infection caused by Blastomyces, usually starting in the lungs after inhaling fungal spores from contaminated soil.
From 'Blastomyces' plus '-osis' (disease condition), a medical term established in the 1890s-1900s as doctors identified and named this disease.
Blastomycosis is called 'the great imitator' because it looks like pneumonia or tuberculosis, fooling doctors into treating it wrong—it wasn't even recognized as a separate disease until the late 1800s.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.