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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

cachexia Africana en · NOUN

Etymology

It was encountered among native Africans.

Meanings

  1. (obsolete, uncountable) A morbid impulse to eat dirt.
    • Cachexia Africana referred to blacks' supposed propensity for eating nonfood substances such as clay, chalk, and dirt. 2008, Harriet A. Washington, “Southern Discomfort”, in Medical Apartheid, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 52: