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Scarlatina

Medical Terms
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

A historical name for scarlet fever, a contagious disease marked by fever and a red rash. In poetry it may evoke childhood illness or the dangers of epidemics.

Detailed Definition
Scarlatina is another name for scarlet fever, an infectious disease that primarily affected children and caused fever, rash, and sore throat. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries outbreaks were common and sometimes deadly. Literary references to scarlatina often appear in depictions of family life and childhood vulnerability. Poets may invoke the disease to illustrate the fragile boundary between innocence and mortality, especially in eras when childhood illness was widespread and feared.
Example
Example in poetry:
The child broke out in a rash of scarlatina; Poets used scarlatina as a term for scarlet fever; She recovered from a mild case of scarlatina; The scarlatina epidemic swept through the school; He wrote of the red throat of scarlatina; Scarlatina is a bacterial infection causing a rash.
Additional Notes
Scarlatina is another name for scarlet fever, a childhood disease marked by fever and red rash. In literature it evokes vulnerability of youth and the fear of infectious illness spreading through families.
Also Known As
Scarlet Fever
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