pellagra en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Etymology
From Italian pellagra, from Latin pellis (“skin”) + Ancient Greek ἄγρα (ágra, “seizure, attack, catching”).
Meanings
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(countable, uncountable) A disease characterised by skin lesions and mental confusion, primarily caused by a niacin deficiency.
Mixing the alkali into the recipe in the right way chemically releases the otherwise unavailable niacin in the corn, which stops pellagra in its tracks, and allowed corn-based agricultural populations to grow and spread.
2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 7, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:In 1755 the French physician Gaspar Casal (1680–1759) published an account of pellagra, then a new disease in Spain.
1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 531:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| pellagras | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
pellagroid · pellagragenic · antipellagra
Relateds
Translations (11)
ga peallagra (disease) · nl pellagra (disease) · sv pellagra (disease) · ru пелла́гра (disease) · cmn 糙皮病 (disease) · es pelagra (disease) · it pellagra (disease) · fr pellagre (disease) · pt pelagra (disease) · fi pellagra (disease) · de Pellagra (disease)