chronic wasting disease

== English == === Etymology === The common-noun sense that functions as a hypernym over the names of various specific diseases predates the sense naming one specific disease in deer. The latter sense appears to have evolved through misparsing in which the former was misinterpreted as being the latter; but it is now an established term for that specific disease (thus, a fait accompli). === Noun === chronic wasting disease (countable and uncountable, plural chronic wasting diseases) (veterinary medicine) A transmissible spongiform encephalopathy found in deer, typified by chronic weight loss leading to death. Synonyms: CWD (initialism), zombie deer disease (slang) (medicine) Any of various chronic diseases that involve wasting in various animals, human or nonhuman. a chronic wasting disease;   various chronic wasting diseases ==== Related terms ==== ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== ==== Further reading ==== chronic wasting disease on Wikipedia.Wikipedia