malady

English

Etymology

From Middle English maladie, from Old French maladie (“sickness, illness, disease”), from malade (“ill, sick”), from Latin male habitus (“ill-kept, not in good condition”), 1st century AD. See also malice and habit.

Pronunciation

• enPR: măl'ə-dē, IPA^(key): /ˈmæl.ə.di/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

malady (plural maladies)

1. Any ailment or disease of the body; especially, a lingering or deep-seated disorder.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet CXVIII”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     As, to prevent our maladies unseen, / We sicken to shun sickness when we purge.

   • a. 1812, Joseph Stevens Buckminster, It is Good for Me, that I have been Afflicted (sermon)

     The maladies of the body may prove medicines of the mind.

2. A moral or mental defect or disorder.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Love's a malady without a cure.

Synonyms

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• ailment, disease, disorder, distemper, illness, sickness

Translations

a disease, illness, or other health disorder

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bikol Central: hilang (bcl)
• Bulgarian: болест (bg) f (bolest), разстройство (bg) n (razstrojstvo)
• Cherokee: ᎥᏳᎩ (vyugi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 疾病 (zh) (jíbìng)

• Finnish: sairaus (fi), tauti (fi)
• French: maladie (fr) f
• German: Krankheit (de) f, Übel (de) n
• Italian: malattia (it) f
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: morbus (la)
• Malayalam: അസുഖം (ml) (asukhaṁ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sykdom (no) m, sjukdom (no) m

  Nynorsk: sjukdom m

• Plautdietsch: Krankheit f
• Portuguese: mal (pt)
• Russian: боле́знь (ru) f (boléznʹ), заболева́ние (ru) n (zabolevánije), расстро́йство (ru) n (rasstrójstvo), неду́г (ru) m (nedúg)
• Spanish: mal (es) m
• Swedish: sjukdom (sv) c
• Tocharian B: teki

References

• “malady”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “malady”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Middle English

Noun

malady

1. Alternative form of maladie