hydrophobia
(haɪdrəˈfəʊbɪə)
In 6 erron. hidroforbia, and anglicized 7–8 hydrophoby (haɪˈdrɒfəbɪ).
[a. L. hydrophobia (Cælius Aurelianus c 420), a. Gr. ὑδροϕοβία (in Celsus, a.d. 50) horror of water, rabid disease, f. ὑδροϕόβος (see prec.).]
1. Path. A symptom of rabies or canine madness when transmitted to man, consisting in an aversion to water or other liquids, and difficulty in swallowing them; hence the disease of rabies, esp. in human beings.
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health 122 Hidroforbia or abhorynge of water... This impediment doth come..of a melancoly humour. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. i. iv, The most knowne are these, Lycanthropia, Hydrophobia, Chorus sancti viti. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xiii. 231 margin, Upon the biting of a mad dog there ensues an hydrophobia or fear of water. 1752 Phil. Trans. XLVII. 412 Isaac Cranfield..was received into the infirmary..with an hydrophobia upon him. 1837 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 95 Its [Mus giganteus] bite is dangerous, and sometimes produces hydrophobia. 1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 399/2 Hydrophobia,..is the disease caused by inoculation with the saliva of a rabid animal, and is so called from the violent and suffocating spasms of the throat which occur when the patient attempts to drink. 1893 H. Dalziel Dis. Dogs (ed. 3) 96 Man inoculated by the rabie virus of a mad dog suffers from the terrible disease called popularly hydrophobia, from a dread of water and inability to swallow liquids being a main feature of the malady, but more accurately the disease is known in man also as rabies. |
| β 1601 Holland Pliny II. 322 That symptome of hydrophobie or fearing water, incident to those that be bitten with a mad dog. a 1711 Ken Anodynes Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 432 He whom Hydrophoby infests, Fair Water of all things detests. 1767 Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 199 Before the appearance of the Hydrophoby or other symptoms of madness. |
2. In etymological sense: Dread or horror of water. Also
fig. madness.
| 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy II. ix, What then..must the terror and hydrophobia of Dr. Slop have been! a 1772 Hume Let. in Haldane Life Adam Smith (1887) iii. 34, I am mortally sick at sea, and regard with..a kind of hydrophobia the great gulf that lies between us. 1802 Morning Post in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1803) VI. 161, I'm raving with a French hydrophoby. 1816 Coleridge Lay Serm. 317 The hydrophobia of a wild and homeless scepticism. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 86 For my part I have a hydrophobia: you will scarcely get me to wet my feet. |
3. The property of a substance of being hydrophobic.
| 1956 Soil Sci. LXXXII. 163 All treated powdered clays had to overcome an initial hydrophobia which took place during the first few minutes of contact with water. 1958 J. J. Bikerman Surface Chem. (ed. 2) iii. 239 At a first approximation, hydrophoby may mean good miscibility with benzene and poor miscibility with water. |
Hence
hydroˈphobial,
-ˈphobian,
-ˈphobious adjs., hydrophobic;
hydroˈphobiac,
-ˈphobian, one suffering from hydrophobia.
| 1662 J. Chandler Van Helmont's Oriat. 280 One..said, that old man was now Hydrophobial or had the Disease causing the fear of water, and to have been lately bitten by a mad dog. Ibid. 282 The madness..doth forthwith arise, and the Hydrophobians are left without hope. 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 58 Hydrophobial patients..generally die in strong convulsions. 1843 Fraser's Mag. XXVII. 177 Poodle-dogs in the highest state of hydrophobious fury. 1883 L. Wingfield A. Rowe II. vii. 176 What a pity he might not smother her like a hydrophobiac! |