PICA

Pica

Pica is characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive, such as ice, clay, chalk, dirt, or sand. According to DSM-IV criteria, for these actions to be considered pica, they must persist for more than one month at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally inappropriate, not part of culturally sanctioned practice and sufficiently severe to warrant clinical attention. The most common, the consumption of ice can be considered very devastating to the maintenance to the body as there is a high risk of tooth cracking, enamel deterioration, and jaw joint strain. The consumption of ice also negatively affects the digestive tract ...

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Pica (disorder)
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pica

Noun

  1. A vitiated appetite that craves what is unfit for food, as chalk, ashes, coal, etc.; chthonophagia.

Noun (etymology 2)

  1. A size of type.
  2. A unit of measure equivalent to 12 points.
    1. The traditional British and American pica, about 4.22 mm, or 0.166 in (close to 1/6 of an inch).
    2. The PostScript pica, 1/6 of an inch.
  3. A Roman Catholic service book; a type of ecclesiastical calendar book.

Noun (etymology 3)

  1. (small rodent)


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: pica
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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