anasarcan.
Pathol.
a. A dropsical affection of the subcutaneous cellular tissue of a limb or other large surface of the body, producing a very puffed appearance of the flesh.
ΚΠ
1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietat. Rerum (1495) vii. lii. 265 The dropesye that hyghte Yposarca other Anasarca.
1681 in S. Pordage tr. T. Willis Remaining Med. Wks. Table, Anasarca, the watry dropsy swelling up the whole flesh.
1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet iv. 391 When the Lymph stagnates, or is extravasated under the Skin, it is called an Anasarka.
1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 425/2 Symptoms of sea-scurvy..with anasarca of the lower limbs.
b. transf. and fig.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > expansion or enlargement > [noun] > great or undue
magment1623
anasarca1807
elephantiasis1866
enormification1881
1807 Edinb. Rev. 11 83 A similar fanciful analogy has induced him to give the name of Anasarca to the redundant moisture that is perceived in vegetables during wet weather.
1841 I. D'Israeli Amenities Lit. (1859) I. 316 An aged power dissolving in its own corruption, which..looked with complacency on its own unnatural greatness, its political anasarca.
1873 Treasury Bot. (ed. 2) 61 Anasarca, a condition of plants analogous to dropsy.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1884; most recently modified version published online March 2011).
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