Other forms: maladies
A malady is an illness, or a deep-seated problem in a society. A strange malady, the maladies of the age.
It is old-fashioned for an illness and still alive for a social problem. A malady is chronic rather than sudden, which is the tone the word carries.
1nounmaladyAn illness, or a deep-seated problem in a society.
“The whole essay treats loneliness as a modern malady.”
malady is an illness.
Old French maladie comes from malade, ill, from Latin male habitus, in poor condition.
Proto-Indo-European
*mel-
Latin
male habitus — ill-kept, not in good condition
Old French
maladie — sickness, illness, disease
Middle English
maladie
English, today
malady
Built from
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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA