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froth-corrupted

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Spoiled or tainted by froth or foam. It describes the soldier’s lungs as damaged and filthy.

Detailed Definition
This compound adjective is not everyday vocabulary and has a harsh, medical-sounding force. Owen uses it to intensify the horror of the gas attack, making the body seem physically contaminated from within.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” makes disease grotesquely audible and visible; Froth-corrupted means spoiled or infected by foam-like phlegm; The compound adjective compresses medical horror into one phrase; A contemporary parallel: “froth-corrupted surf coughed plastic ashore.”
Additional Notes
The quoted word is a rare, striking compound that most readers would need to unpack because it is not common modern usage.; Found in the poem, Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Also Known As
foam-laden frothy effervescent spume-covered
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