| 释义 |
‖ elephantiasis|ˌɛlɪfənˈtaɪəsɪs|
[L. elephantiasis, a. Gr. ἐλεϕαντίασις, f. ἐλέϕας, elephant.]
1. The name given to various kinds of cutaneous disease, which produce in the part affected a resemblance to an elephant's hide. The best known are:
a. E. Græcorum, a tubercular disease, often identified with Eastern leprosy;
b. E. Arabum, called also Elephant Leg, and in the W. Indies Barbadoes Leg, which produces an induration and darkening of the skin, chiefly on the leg.
1581Mulcaster Positions x. (1887) 57 Egyptian lepre, called Elephantiasis. 1656Ridgley Pract. Physick 111 Elephantiasis of the Arabians, is a swelling of the Foot, wan, and looks like an Elephants Foot. 1807Southey Espriella's Lett. (1814) III. 275 Those [letters] which should be thin look as if they had the elephantiasis. 1869W. M. Rossetti Mem. Shelley Introd. 45 Shelley had a fancy..that he was about to be visited with elephantiasis.
2. fig. A great or undue expansion or enlargement.
1866G. Meredith Let. 22 Dec. (1970) I. 349 You have become the victim of a kind of mental elephantiasis—you fancy all things as immensities. 1928R. Campbell Wayzgoose ii. 53 But ah! her Soul's dimensions to report—Elephantiasis comes far too short! 1955Bull. Atomic Sci. Oct. 276/1 It is a tremendous building, saved from elephantiasis by the skill of its architects in blending classical and modern. 1969Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 27 June 5/3 The Monopolies Commission itself no longer acts... Even if it is asked to investigate, the managements later have almost complete freedom to develop corporate elephantiasis. |