malady means any ailment or disease of the body; especially, a lingering or deep-seated disorder. It carries an Arena rating of 1687, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, malady ranks #585 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #629 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,094 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,320 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
malady is pronounced /ˈmæl.ə.di/.
Why “malady” is a great word
A disease or ailment, especially a chronic or deep-seated one, or a moral or mental disorder. From Middle English *maladie*, from Old French *maladie* ("sickness"), from *malade* ("sick"), from Late Latin *male habitus* ("ill-kept, ill-conditioned"), from Latin *male* ("badly") + *habitus*, past participle of *habere* ("to have, hold"). Unlike "ailment," which suggests a minor, transient discomfort, or "disease," which implies a specific, diagnosable pathology, a malady is a more profound and often more mysterious affliction of the whole being. It is the wasting cough that hollows the cheek over years, the inherited melancholy that darkens a family like a shadow passed through blood, or the spiritual rot of a culture that has forgotten what it once held sacred—the body or spirit speaking in a dialect of discomfort that grows too familiar to ignore.
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.
noun
- Any ailment or disease of the body; especially, a lingering or deep-seated disorder.e.g.“As, to prevent our maladies unseen, / We sicken to shun sickness when we purge.” — 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:
- A moral or mental defect or disorder.e.g.“Love's a malady without a cure.” — 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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