Black Death

Definition: Black Death

Black Death

Noun

1. The epidemic form of bubonic plague experienced during the Middle Ages when it killed nearly half the people of western Europe.

Specialty Definitions: Black Death

Domain	Definitions
Literature	Black Death A putrid typhus, in which the body turned black with rapid putrefaction. It occurred in 1348, and carried off twenty-five millions in Europe alone, while in Asia and Africa the mortality was even greater. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Black Death

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Black Death (also The Plague, and latterly Black Plague though not called this in earlier times) was a devastating epidemic in Europe in the 14th century which is estimated to have killed about a third of the population. Most scientists believe that the Black Death was an outbreak of bubonic plague, a dreaded disease that has spread in pandemic form several times through history. The plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis which is spread by fleas with the help of animals like the black rat (Rattus rattus) -what we would call today the sewer rat. Sometimes, the term "Black Death" is used for all outbreaks of plague and epidemics.

Evolution

It is not entirely clear where the major epidemic of the 14th century started, but it was probably somewhere around the northern parts of India. It then spread west to the Middle East. The plague was imported to Europe by the way of the Crimea, where the Genoese colony Kaffa (Feodosiya) was besieged by the Mongols. History says that the Mongols catapulted infected cadavers¹ into the city. The refugees from Kaffa then took the plague along to Messina, Genoa and Venice, around the turn of 1347/1348. Some ships didn't have anyone alive when they reached their port. From Italy the disease spread clockwise around Europe, hitting France, Spain, England (in June 1348) and Britain, Germany, Scandinavia and finally north-western Russia around 1351.

Consequences

The information about the death toll varies widely from source to source, but it is estimated that about a third of the population of Europe died from the outbreak in the mid-1300s. Approximately 25 million deaths occurred in Europe alone with many others occurring in Africa and Asia. Some villages were deserted with the few survivors fleeing and spreading the disease further.

The great population loss brought economic changes based on increased social mobility as depopulation eroded peasant obligations (already weakened) to remain on their traditional holdings. The sudden scarcity of cheap labor provided an incentive for innovation that broke the stagnation of the Dark Ages and, some argue, caused the Renaissance, despite the Renaissance occurring in some areas (such as Italy) before others . Because of the depopulation, though, the surviving Europeans became the biggest consumers of meat for a civilization before industrial agriculture.

¹ A cadaver is another name for a corpse or body.

Alternative explanations

Recently the scientists Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan from Liverpool University have proposed the theory that the Black Death might have been caused by an Ebola-like virus, not a bacterium. Their rationale is that this plague spread much faster and the incubation period was much shorter than the plagues caused by Yersinia pestis. It also took place in completely ratless areas like Iceland. It was transferred between humans (which happens rarely with Yersinia pestis), and some genes that determine immunity to Ebola-like viruses are much more widespread in Europe than in other parts of the world.

Moreover, what was previously considered to be final evidence for the Yersinia pestis theory, tooth pulp tissue taken from a 14th century plague cemetery in Montpellier containing Y. pestis DNA, was never confirmed in any other cemetery.

There are counter-arguments to this theory, however. Historical examples of pandemics of other diseases in populations not previously exposed, such as smallpox and tuberculosis amongst American Indians, show that because there is no inherited adaptation to the disease, its course in the first epidemic is faster and far more virulent than later epidemics amongst the descendants of survivors. The Middle East and Far East were affected equally badly (as the Rihla of Ibn Battuta testifies), so the prevalence of immunity genes specifically in Europeans is curious. Furthermore, the plague returned again and again and was recognised as the same disease through succeeding centuries into modern times when the Yersinia bacterium was identified.

In September 2003, a team of researchers from Oxford University revealed the surprising results of tests made on 121 teeth from 66 skeletons found in 14th century mass graves. The remains showed no genetic trace of Yersinia pestis, and the researchers suggest that the Montpellier study might have been flawed.

External links and references

BBC news story on controversy over Black Death origins
Mark Derr, "New Theories Link black Death to Ebola-Like Virus", The New York Times, Science Section, October 2, 2001.
Examination of "Ring around the Rosy"'s relationship to the plague

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Black Death."

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Synonym: Black Death

Synonym: black plague (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Black Death

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Disease	Ague, angina pectoris, appendicitis; Asiatic cholera, spasmodic cholera; biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague; blennorrhagia, blennorrhoea; blood poisoning, bloodstroke, bloody flux, brash; breakbone fever, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever; heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy; hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis; bronchocele, canker rash, cardialgia, carditis, endocarditis; cholera, asphyxia; chlorosis, chorea, cynanche, dartre; enanthem, enanthema; erysipelas; exanthem, exanthema; gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness; grip, grippe, influenza, flu; hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw; measles, mumps, polio; necrosis, pertussis, phthisis, pneumonia, psora, pyaemia, pyrosis, quinsy, rachitis, ringworm, rubeola, St. Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma, syntexis, tetanus, tetter, tonsillitis, tonsilitis, tracheocele, trachoma, trismus, varicella, varicosis, variola, water qualm, whooping cough; yellow fever, yellow jack.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Black Death

English words defined with "Black Death": doomed. (references)

Specialty definitions using "Black Death": Black Cap, Black Rood of Scotland, Black Screen of Death, Blue Screen of Death ♦ Corpse ♦ Devil's Livery ♦ Haidee ♦ Judge's Black Cap ♦ Letter ♦ Panace'a ♦ Symbolism of Colours. (references)

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Modern Usage: Black Death

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	House of the Black Death (1965)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Black Death

Domain	Title
Books	In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made (reference) The Black Death (reference) The Black Death and the Transformation of the West (reference) The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe (reference) When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Black Death (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Black Death

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
black death	660	black death history	13
black death picture	52	black death bubonic plague	12
b b b b b b b b b b black death heavy hessian.org metal metal metal metal	51	b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b black death disciple distro label lost metal metal record recs	12
black death metal mp3	45	black death cigarette	11
b b b b b b black death disciple label lost metal metal record record	40	ambient black death doom metal metal metal red stream	9
black death plague	35	b b black death distrobution	9
black death sirius	34	b b b b b b black death metal mp3	8
b b b b b b black death disciple distro label lost metal metal record recs	34	aids black death	8
b b b b beherit black death heavy metal page	24	ambient black death electronica folk metal punk review	8
b b b b b b b b b b black death doom metal metal metal metal necrozine power	24	b b b b b b black death melodic metal temptamentum	7
b b b b b b black death guide metal metal music	22	b b b b black death distribution doom gothic lcg metal	6
black death motorcycle	19	art black death	6
b b b b b b black death links metal metal mp3	18	b b b b b b b b black death magazine magazine masterful metal metal metal	6
auction b b b b black death f heavy katalog magazine metal metalglory r thrash	17	b b b b b b b b b b black death doom metal metal metal metal necrodecay power	6
b b b b b b b b b b b b black death file metal metal metal mp3 mp3 mp3	16	age black death middle	6
b b beherit black death heavy metal page	15	black death e metal zine	6
black death vodka	15	1347 black death	5
ambient b b black death doom metal metal metal red stream	14	black death europe in	5
black death metal	13	black death pic	5
b b b b b b b b b b b b black death file heavy metal metal metal mp3 mp3 w	13	black death information	5
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Black Death

Language		Translations for "Black Death"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Czech		èerná smrt. (various references)

French		black energy (black energy), black death (black energy), acide noir (black energy). (various references)

German		schwarzer tod. (various references)

Hungarian		pestis (pest, pestilence, plague), fekete halál (pest). (various references)

Italian		peste bubbonica (bubonic plague, pestis bubonica), morte nera (black energy), acido nero (black energy). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		�'死病 (bubonic plague). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		�"くしびょう (bubonic plague). (various references)

Manx		Yn Gorley Doo (The Black Death). (various references)

Pig Latin		ackblay eathday

Portuguese		peste negra. (various references)

Russian		чума в Европе в XIV в. (the Black Death), 'черная смерть' (the Black Death). (various references)

Spanish		peste negra. (various references)

Turkish		veba (fowl pest, pest, pestilence, plague). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Misspellings: Black Death

Misspellings
	"Black Death" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: balck death. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Black Death

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-b-c-d-e-h-k-l-t"
	-1 letter: blackhead.
	-2 letters: backdate.
	-3 letters: ablated, actable, batched, bechalk, blacked, cathead, chaetal, chalked, datable, hackled, hatable, latched, tackled, takable, talcked, thacked.
	-4 letters: abated, ablate, acetal, alated, alcade, althea, bached, backed, balked, bathed, bhakta, bleach, cabled, cablet, calked, chaeta, chalet, daleth, datcha, detach, hacked, hackle, halted, keblah, klatch, lacked, lathed, tabled, tacked, tackle, takahe, talced, talked.
	-5 letters: aahed.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.