marasmus

Borrowed from Late Latin marasmus, from Ancient Greek μᾰρᾰσμός (mărăsmós, “withering”, noun).

• IPA^(key): /məˈɹæz.məs/

marasmus (countable and uncountable, plural marasmuses)

1. (medicine) A condition of chronic undernourishment especially in children, caused by a diet deficient in calories or the inability to digest protein and presenting as a severe loss of body weight.

   Hyponym: marasmus senilis

   • 2015, Angus Deaton, “4 Health in the Modern World”, in The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality‎^[1], page 163:

     Indian children are still among the skinniest and shortest on the planet, but they are taller and plumper than were their parents or grandparents, and the signs of gross hunger, such as marasmus, are now rarely seen in nutritional surveys.

• marasmic
• marasmoid

• “marasmus”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “marasmus”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μᾰρᾰσμός (mărăsmós, “withering”, noun), related to μᾰραίνω (măraínō, “to quench; to waste, wither”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [maˈras.mʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [maˈraz.mus]

marasmus m (genitive marasmī); second declension (Late Latin)

1. (medicine) marasmus

Second-declension noun.

• → English: marasmus