tetanus

See also: Tetanus

English

Muscular spasms in a patient suffering from tetanus.

Etymology

From Latin tetanus, from Ancient Greek τέτανος (tétanos), from τείνω (teínō, “I stretch”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛtənəs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛt̚nɨs/

Noun

tetanus (usually uncountable, plural tetani)

1. (pathology, countable) A serious and often fatal disease caused by the infection of an open wound with the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani, found in soil and the intestines and faeces of animals.
2. (physiology, countable) A state of muscle tension caused by sustained contraction arising from a rapid series of nerve impulses which do not allow the muscle to relax.
   • 1998 January 16, Pierre-Marie Lledo et al., “Postsynaptic Membrane Fusion and Long-Term Potentiation”, in Science^[1], volume 279, number 5349, DOI:10.1126/science.279.5349.399, pages 399-403:

     We first saturated LTP in one pathway by applying repetitive tetani that had no effect on the control pathway (Fig. 4 B).

Synonyms

• (disease caused by Clostridium tetani): lockjaw

Derived terms

• tetanal
• tetanic
• tetany
• tetanize
• tetanization

Translations

disease

• Arabic: الكزاز‏‎
• Armenian: փայտացում (hy) (pʿaytacʿum)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 破傷風 (zh), 破伤风 (zh) (pòshāngfēng)

• Czech: tetanus m
• Esperanto: tetano
• Finnish: jäykkäkouristus (fi), tetanus (fi)
• French: tétanos (fr) m
• Galician: tétano m
• German: Tetanus (de) m, Wundstarrkrampf (de) m
• Greek: τέτανος (el) m (tétanos)
• Italian: tetano (it) m

• Korean: 파상풍 (pasangpung)
• Maori: pakaua hukihuki, mate pakaua hukihuki
• Polish: tężec m
• Portuguese: tétano (pt) m
• Russian: столбня́к (ru) m (stolbnják)
• Spanish: tétanos (es)
• Swahili: pepopunda
• Swedish: stelkramp
• Thai: บาดทะยัก (bàat-tá-yák)
• Turkish: tetanoz (tr), kazıklı humma (tr)
• Vietnamese: uốn ván

Anagrams

• attunes, nutates, tautens, unstate, untaste

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Czech

Noun

tetanus m

1. tetanus (pathology)

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek τέτανος (tétanos); New Latin usage specific to the bacteria-caused disease.

Noun

tetanus m (genitive tetanī); second declension

1. A stiffness or spasm of the neck; tetanus
2. (New Latin) The disease caused by Clostridium tetani.

References

• tetanus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• du Cange, Charles (1883), “tetanus”, in G. A. Louis Henschel, Pierre Carpentier, Léopold Favre, editors, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (in Latin), Niort: L. Favre
• “tetanus” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)