[mass noun]a serious bacterial disease of sheep and cattle, typically affecting the skin and lungs. It can be transmitted to humans, causing severe skin ulceration (see malignant pustule)or a form of pneumonia (wool-sorters’ disease). (see malignant pustule) 炭疽
语源
late Middle English : Latin, carbuncle' (the earliest sense in English), from Greek anthrax, anthrak- 'coal, carbuncle', with reference to the skin ulceration in humans