a serious disease that affects sheep and cows and sometimes people, and can cause death Topics Illnessc2炭疽(牛羊疾病,人偶得,可致命) Word Originlate Middle English: Latin, ‘carbuncle’, swelling under the skin (the earliest sense in English), from Greek anthrax, anthrak- ‘coal, carbuncle’, with reference to the skin ulceration in humans.