malaise

See also: Malaise and malaisé

English

Etymology

From French malaise (“ill ease”), from mal- (“bad, badly”) + aise (“ease”). Compare ill at ease.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mæˈleɪz/
• IPA^(key): /məˈleɪz/, /mæ-/, /-ˈlɛz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪz
• Homophone: Malays

Noun

malaise (countable and uncountable, plural malaises)

1. A feeling of general bodily discomfort, fatigue or unpleasantness, often at the onset of illness.

   Synonyms: unease, doldrums, ill at ease

   • 2019 August 21, Adrienne Matei, “Shock! Horror! Do you know how much time you spend on your phone?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Addressing tech malaise has become a trend with authors and self-help coaches – such as Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone, who, during a $295, 50-minute phone call, will offer you advice on things like how to create roadblocks to checking your phone by putting a rubber band around your screen, and “think of the bigger picture” rather than what you’re missing on Twitter.

2. An ambiguous feeling of mental or moral depression.

   Synonyms: melancholy, weltschmerz, angst

   • 2003, Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War:

     Their failure helped produce the widespread malaise reported by Thucydides: the Athenians "grieved over their private sufferings, the common people because, having started out with less, they were deprived even of that; the rich had lost their beautiful estates in the country, the houses as well as their expensive furnishings, but worst of all, they had war instead of peace" (2.65.2).

3. Ill will or hurtful feelings for others or someone.

Related terms

• disease

Translations

bodily feeling

• Bulgarian: неразположение (bg) n (nerazpoloženie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不舒服 (zh) (bùshūfu), 不適 (zh), 不适 (zh) (bùshì), 欠安 (zh) (qiàn'ān)

• Czech: malátnost f
• Dutch: ongesteldheid (nl) f
• Finnish: huonovointisuus, pahanolontunne
• French: malaise (fr) m
• German: Unbehagen (de) n, Unwohlsein (de) n
• Greek: αδιαθεσία (el) (adiathesía)
• Hungarian: gyengélkedés (hu), rossz közérzet (hu)
• Irish: easláinte f, meath-thinneas m

• Italian: malessere (it) m
• Japanese: 不快 (ja) (ふかい, fukai)
• Persian: ناخوشی‎ (fa) (nâxoši)
• Portuguese: mal-estar (pt) m
• Romanian: indispoziție (ro)
• Russian: недомога́ние (ru) n (nedomogánije)
• Serbo-Croatian: malaksalost (sh) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: njederjeměśe n

• Spanish: malestar (es) m
• Swedish: sjukdomskänsla

ambiguous feeling of mental or moral depression

• Bulgarian: безпокойство (bg) n (bezpokojstvo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不安 (zh) (bù'ān)

• Dutch: teneergeslagenheid f
• Finnish: mielipaha (fi), pahanolontunne

• Japanese: 不快 (ja) (ふかい, fukai), 不安 (ja) (ふあん, fuan)
• Persian: ناخوشی‎ (fa) (nâxoši)
• Russian: дискомфо́рт (ru) m (diskomfórt)

Further reading

• malaise on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Malesia, seamail

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.lɛz/

Etymology 1

mal- +‎ aise

Noun

malaise m (plural malaises)

1. malaise, uneasiness, cringe

Etymology 2

see malais

Adjective

malaise

1. feminine singular of malais

Further reading

• “malaise” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch malaise, from French malaise.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [maˈlai̯sə]
• Hyphenation: ma‧lai‧sê

Noun

malaise or malaisê

1. (economics) depression, a period of major economic contraction.
2. (medicine) malaise, a feeling of general bodily discomfort, fatigue or unpleasantness, often at the onset of illness.

Further reading

• “malaise” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.