parasitosis

[par-uh-sahy-toh-sis, -si-]

noun

Pathology.

1. parasitism.

Word History and Origins

Origin of parasitosis¹

First recorded in 1895–1900; parasite + -osis

Example Sentences

This ancient, justified fear could be the root of delusional parasitosis, a mental health condition in which people have psychological delusions that they have a parasite when they don't really.

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When they got to the villages, they encountered rampant malnutrition and intestinal parasitosis.

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Understanding the nuances of disgust, they say, could inform our understanding of disorders such as delusional parasitosis, the mistaken belief that parasites have invaded the body.

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But Oliver Cromwell, the Englishman who conquered Ireland, died of malaria, in 1658, rather than take quinine, the only known treatment, because he associated it with its Catholic discoverers, making him a victim of both parasitosis and sectarianism.

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He shows the classic signs of what scientists call delusory parasitosis, or Ekbom syndrome, an unwavering but incorrect belief that the patient’s body has been infested with something.

Read more on National Geographic