GC: n
S: https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1756-3305-3-5 (last access: 11 May 2016); CDC – http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/biology/parasites.html (last access: 11 May 2016).
N: 1. malaria (n): 1740, from Italian mal’aria, from mala aria, literally “bad air,” from mala “bad” (fem. of malo, from Latin malus; see mal-) + aria “air”. Probably first used by Italian physician Francisco Torti (1658-1741). The disease, now known to be mosquito-borne, once was thought to be caused by foul air in marshy districts. Replaced native ague.
parasite (n): 1530s, “a hanger-on, a toady, person who lives on others,” from Middle French parasite (16c.) or directly from Latin parasitus “toady, sponger,” and directly from Greek parasitos “one who lives at another’s expense, person who eats at the table of another,” from noun use of an adjective meaning “feeding beside,” from para- “beside” + sitos “food,” of unknown origin. Scientific meaning “animal or plant that lives on others” is first recorded 1640s (implied in parasitical).
2. plasmodium: A parasite that causes malaria.
3. Malaria parasites spread by successively infecting two types of hosts: female Anopheles mosquitoes and humans.
4. Plasmodium: The genus of the class of Sporazoa that includes the parasite that causes malaria. Plasmodium is a type of protozoa, a single-celled organism that is able to divide only within a host cell. The main types of Plasmodium are P. falciparum, the species that causes falciparum malaria, the most dangerous type of malaria; P. malariae, the species that causes quartan malaria; P. ovale, a species found primarily in east and central Africa that causes ovale malaria; and P. vivax, the species that causes vivax malaria, which tends to be milder than falciparum malaria.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=malaria; http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=parasite (last access: 11 May 2016). 2. http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?plasmodium (last access: 11 May 2016). 3. http://www.mmv.org/malaria-medicines/parasite-lifecycle (last access: 11 May 2016). 4. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4939 (last access: 11 May 2016).
SYN: plasmodium
S: http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?plasmodium (last access: 11 May 2016); GDT – http://www.granddictionnaire.com/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=17081296 (last access: 11 May 2016).
