Kuru disease en · NOUN
Etymology
From Fore kúru (literally “trembling, shivering”). Perhaps eventually from Proto-Gorokan *kút(V) (“dangling, shaking”) if cognate with the reduplicated element of Yagaria gúli gúli hu- (“be loose, rattle”).
Meanings
- (uncountable) A rare, fatal prion disease of the Fore people of Papua New Guinea, causing progressive neurological decline and historically transmitted through mortuary endocannibalism.