Miliary

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Consisting of numerous small, seed-like structures often seen in medical contexts
2. referring to a pattern characterized by tiny, discrete points or spots resembling millet
3. used to describe certain skin eruptions or lesions that appear in clusters resembling small seeds

Etymology: The adjective "miliary" describes something resembling millet seeds, and that comparison is the whole story. Latin "milium" meant millet, the small-grained cereal, and "miliarius" was built from it to mean "relating to millet" or "like millet grains." Medical writers borrowed the idea for the tiny, seed-sized nodules that appear across the lungs or skin in diseases such as tuberculosis, so a rash or lung pattern that looks like scattered millet is called miliary. The sense of the Latin word is preserved most clearly in that image: a condition is miliary when its spots are spread widely and evenly, like grains scattered across a surface. Its use in English is confined almost entirely to clinical language, where the comparison to a cereal is no longer something most readers consciously notice.

Synonyms: millet-like