GC: n
S: WHO – http://www.who.int/occupational_health/publications/airdust/en/ (last access: 12 July 2016); ILO – N: 1. 1881, a hybrid from silicon (nonmetallic element, 1817, coined by British chemist Thomas Thomson from silica (silicon dioxide), from which it was isolated) + -osis (word-forming element expressing state or condition, in medical terminology denoting “a state of disease,” from Latin -osis and directly from Greek -osis, formed from the aorist of verbs ending in -o; it corresponds to Latin -atio).
2. Silicosis, a chronic disease of the lungs that is caused by the inhalation of silica dust over long periods of time. (Silica is the chief mineral constituent of sand and of many kinds of rock.) Silicosis is a form of pneumoconiosis. The disease occurs most commonly in miners, quarry workers, stonecutters, tunnelers, and workers whose jobs involve grinding, sandblasting, polishing, and buffing. Silicosis is one of the oldest industrial diseases, having been recognized in knife grinders and potters in the 18th century, and it remains one of the most common dust-induced respiratory diseases in the developed world.
3. Silicosis is the most common and severe of all pneumoconiosis. The fibrogenic or cytotoxic action of the causative agent produces basically nodular fibrosis of the lungs. When the nodules coalesce in large fibrous masses, the silicosis is termed massive or complicated. Pneumoconiosis due to the inhalation of asbestos, mica, talc, clay and slate dusts are not considered as silicosis because their causative agent is not free crystalline silica (SIO2), but is silicate, the SIO4 tetrahedron.
4. Chalicosis and calicosis are deprecated and obsolete terms referring to a road construction technique based on manual operations using hand tools; a former road construction technique which is not used in industrialized countries anymore.
Flint disease is a deprecated and obsolete term, even though flint is a form of silica, because the word flint is a restrictive term which refers to a very single specific mineral form of silica, and does not include the other silicate minerals groups containing free crystalline silica.
The deprecated word rot refers to diseases different from silicosis, rot refers to any disease characterized by decay, today.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=silicosis (last access: 12 July 2016). 2. EncBrit – https://global.britannica.com/science/silicosis (last access: 12 July 2016). 3 & 4. GDT – http://www.granddictionnaire.com/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=2069326 (last access: 12 July 2016).
SYN:
S:
CR: silica