Phthisis

A good trivia or crossword item.

An over-consonanted Greek word meaning 'a dwindling or wasting away.' Pronounced TIE-sis.

Phthisis is an archaic name for tuberculosis.

A person afflicted with tuberculosis in the old days was destined to dwindle and waste away like Mimi, the heroine of Puccini's 1896 opera 'La Boheme.'</P> The tongue-twisting name 'nephronophthisis' is derived from 'nephron' + 'phthisis.' The nephron is the fundamental functional unit in the kidney and includes the renal tubule and glomerulus.

In nephronophthisis the kidney is progressively destroyed and the child wastes away.