croup

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a disease of infants and young children; harsh coughing and hoarseness and fever and difficult breathing
  2. noun the part of an animal that corresponds to the human buttocks

Etymology

From Middle English croupe, from Old French croupe (“rump, body”), from Old Norse kroppr (“body, trunk, mass”), from Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“body, mass, heap, collection, crop”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to curve, bend, crawl”). More at crupper, doublet of croupe, group, and crop.

In classic literature

Synonyms

spasmodic laryngitis

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