noun
[ sing. ] the name used for the very serious infectious disease, (called bubonic plague ), which killed millions of people in Europe and Asia in the 14th century
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WORD ORIGIN
a modern term (compare with earlier the (great) pestilence , great death , the plague ), said to have been introduced into English history by Mrs Markham (pseudonym of Mrs Penrose) in 1823, and into medical literature by a translation of German der Schwarze Tod (1833).