stiff-sickness, noun

Origin:
Translation of Afrikaans styfsiekte.
1. Pathology. styfsiekte sense 1.
1886 G.A. Farini Through Kalahari Desert 64We have sickness among the flocks and herds to contend with. First, the lung ziekt, or lung-sickness, and then the steuve ziekt, or stiff-sickness — the latter a very curious plague, which appeared only a few years ago. The cattle get stiff in their forequarters, till after a few days they cannot walk, and gradually dwindle away and starve to death.
1894 E. Glanville Fair Colonist 231‘You have lost fifteen head of cattle.’ ‘The lung-sickness carried off nine, stiff-sickness killed four, and two were stolen.’
1905 D. Hutcheon in Flint & Gilchrist Science in S. Afr. 360Osteomalacia or Stijfziekte and Lamziekte. This is a disease which is characterised by a gradual softening of the bones.., accompanied by a highly vascular condition of the articular extremities of the bones of the limbs, causing acute lameness, which is locally called ‘Stiffsickness’.
1954 Mönnig & Veldman Handbk on Stock Diseases 227Several forms of stiffsickness occur in cattle and should be differentiated from one another...1. Three-day stiffsickness (also called three-day sickness) — see Virus Diseases. 2. Stiffsickness due to phosphorus deficiency — see Metabolic Diseases. 3. Stiffsickness caused by the stiffsickness plant.
1968 K. McMagh Dinner of Herbs 2His milk cows all have stiff sickness.
1978 S. Afr. Panorama May 37After the bones were cleared away and the cattle fed with fresh bonemeal, the incidence of paralysis dropped and there was a spectacular improvement in the cattle’s productivity. The meal also cured ‘stywesiekte’ (stiff sickness) which was related to rickets.
1979 T. Gutsche There Was a Man 21Visiting Griqualand West in 1884, he had satisfied himself that both Lamziekte and Stijfziekte (Stiff Sickness) were due to defective nutrition.
2. combinations
stiff-sickness bush, also stiff-sickness plant, the styfsiektebossie (see styfsiekte sense 2), Crotalaria burkeana.
1954 Mönnig & Veldman Handbk on Stock Diseases 67Three-day sickness should be differentiated from true stiffsickness (phosphate deficiency), stiffsickness bush (crotalaria) poisoning, diplodia (mealie fungus) poisoning, laminitis, etc.
1954 Mönnig & Veldman Handbk on Stock Diseases 228Stiffsickness caused by the stiffsickness plant (rattle bush, Crotalaria burkeana).
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Afrikaans
stick-grass, nounn.stiffy, nounn.
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