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A.Word.A.Day--prophylaxis

prophylaxis (pro-fuh-LAK-sis, prof-) noun

Prevention of or protective treatment for disease.

[New Latin, from Greek prophulaktikos, from prophulassein, to take precautions against : pro-, before + phulassein, to protect (from phulax, guard).]

"I thought back to my own three years in Nigeria, and how different my health and indeed my life might have been if suddenly, in the middle of our stay, our supply of anti-malaria prophylaxis had been cut off." Meg Skinner, Worrying That the Bombs Might Target an African Friend, Capital Times (Madison, WI), Aug 31, 1998.

This week's theme: words from medicine.

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