the.com/malady
Any sickness fancy enough to need a word borrowed from French.
means A disease or illness, especially a chronic or deep-seated one — physical or sometimes figurative, like a 'malady of the spirit.'
from From Old French maladie, built on malade ('sick'), which traces back to Latin male habitus — literally 'badly kept' or 'in bad condition,' from male ('badly') plus habitus ('having, holding, being in a state'). So at its root, a malady is simply the state of being poorly held together.
- origin
- from Latin male habitus, badly kept
- usage
- often metaphorical, as in societal malady
- vs disease
- vaguer, more literary, less insurance paperwork
- tone
- sounds poetic even when describing a cough