Dated medical term for pulmonary tuberculosis, originally from traditional Chinese medicine. In modern Japanese, 肺結核 is the standard term.
In the past, pulmonary tuberculosis was feared as an incurable disease.
The protagonist of this novel suffers from pulmonary tuberculosis.
労咳 is an archaic, literary word for tuberculosis found in older texts, whereas 結核 is the standard term used in modern medicine and everyday speech.
Standard kanji form for this term.
Rarely used kanji form.
The term originates from traditional Chinese medicine, where 労 (consumptive disease) and 咳 (cough) combine to describe a wasting illness with coughing. The exact historical derivation is uncertain.