disease

English

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disease

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• (uneasiness): dis-ease

Etymology

From Middle English disese, from Anglo-Norman desese, disaise, from Old French desaise, from des- + aise. Equivalent to dis- +‎ ease. Displaced native Middle English adle, audle (“disease”) (from Old English ādl (“disease, sickness”), see adle), Middle English cothe, coathe (“disease”) (from Old English coþu (“disease”), see coath).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: dĭ-zēzʹ IPA^(key): /dɪˈziːz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɪˈziz/, /dəˈziz/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dis‧ease
• Rhymes: -iːz

Noun

disease (countable and uncountable, plural diseases)

1. (medicine) An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant that causes discomfort or dysfunction; distinct from injury insofar as the latter is usually instantaneously acquired.

   The tomato plants had some kind of disease that left their leaves splotchy and fruit withered.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 272, column 2:

     […] diſeaſes deſperate growne,
     By deſperate appliance are releeued,
     Or not at all.

   • November 22, 1787, James Madison Jr., Federalist No. 10

     The instability, injustice, and confusion, introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have every where perished;

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, →OL:

     […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases.

   • 2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:

     Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.

2. (figuratively) Any abnormal or harmful condition, as of society, people's attitudes, way of living etc.
   • 1955, The Urantia Book, Paper 134:6.7:

     War is not man's great and terrible disease; war is a symptom, a result. The real disease is the virus of national sovereignty.

3. Lack of ease; uneasiness; trouble; vexation; disquiet.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. , part II (books IV–VI), London: [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 40, page 422:

   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters.  (First Quarto), London: Nathaniel Butter, , published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     To ſhield thee from diſeaſes of the world, […]

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:disease § Synonyms

Hyponyms

• See Thesaurus:disease § Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

disease (third-person singular simple present diseases, present participle diseasing, simple past and past participle diseased)

1. (obsolete) To cause unease; to annoy, irritate.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke viij:[49], folio lxxxix, recto:

     Whyll he yett ſpeake
     there cam won from the rulers off the ſynagogis houſſe
     which ſayde to hym: Thy doughter is deed
     diſeaſe not the maſter.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 208:

     […] mote he ſoft himſelfe appeaſe,
     And fairely fare on foot, how euer loth;
     His double burden did him ſore diſeaſe.

2. To infect with a disease.

References

• “disease”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “disease”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Seaside, seaside