Consumptional

/kənˌsʌmpʃənəl/ adjective

Definition

Relating to or concerning consumption, especially the wasting away associated with tuberculosis.

Etymology

From consumption + -al (suffix meaning 'relating to'). Consumption historically referred to TB because the disease consumes the body from within.

Kelly Says

Before antibiotics, 'consumption' was a death sentence—the disease literally consumed you from inside out. The medical term survives in phrases like 'consumptional disease,' a relic of 19th-century medicine.

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