malady

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.

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

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malady (plural maladies)

1. Any ailment or disease of the body; especially, a lingering or deep-seated disorder.
   • William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXVIII

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

   • Buckminster

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

2. A moral or mental defect or disorder.
   • John Dryden

     Love's a malady without a cure.

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

• malady in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “malady” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

malady

1. Alternative form of maladie