[L. tābēs wasting away, dissolution, consumption.] 1. Path. Slow progressive emaciation of the body or its parts; consumption.
Common in medical Latin names of specific diseases, as tabes dorsalis, locomotor ataxia, tabes mesenterica, tuberculosis in the mesenteric glands, etc.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., § 258. In Tabes, or Consumptions, distempers of the lungs, head, eyes.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Tabes dorsalis, the mourning of the chine; a wasting or consumption of the back.
1706. in Phillips.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 125. General paralysis is a ‘tabes of the brain.’
2. Decay of trees or other plants caused by disease or injury.
1832. Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. Planting, 70. Spontaneous bleeding, or great loss of sap, generally ends in the disease termed tabes. Ibid., 71. Tabes, or the wasting of trees, is brought on not unfrequently by parasitical plants.
