malaria
noun/məˈlɛəɹi.ə/
Etymology Borrowed from Italian malaria, formed from mal- (“bad”) and aria (“air”). Introduced into English by the Scottish geologist John MacCulloch (1773–1835). Displaced native Old English unlyft (literally “bad air”).
2
Archaic Supposed poisonous air arising from marshy districts, once thought to cause fever.
- The doctor had his hands full, as the air was so impregnated with malaria that men who had only landed some twenty-four hours were laid low with this extraordinarily violent type of fever.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 149:
- Derived terms
- airport malaria, antimalaria, antimalarial, falciparum malaria, knowlesi malaria, malarial, malariametric, malaria mosquito, malaria net, malarigenous, malarin, malarioid, malariologist, malariology, malarious, nonmalaria, vivax malaria