Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
impostumate . - noun A collection of pus or purulent matter in any part of an animal body; an abscess.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete An
abscess .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Old French empostume, alteration of apostume ("apostume, large abscess"), from Latin apostema, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστεμα ("separation of pus into an abscess").
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Examples
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We feare more the cure then the disease, the surgion then the paine, the stroke then the impostume.
A Discourse of Life and Death, by Mornay; and Antonius by Garnier Robert Garnier 1591
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Why his masculine whore, now the rotten diseases of the south, the guts griping ruptures: loades a gravell in the back, lethergies, could palsies, rawe eies, durtrotte [n] livers, whissing lungs, bladders full of impostume.
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Whereupon Catullus called Nonius a scab or impostume though he sat in his chair of estate. [
The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius 1908
chained_bear commented on the word impostume
"Splinter-wounds occupied them for some time: instances of healing at first intent, instances of malignant impostumes; and when Stephen stood up Jack said 'I will come with you.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 183
March 7, 2008