malaria

What it means

1. countableuncountablemedicineA disease spread by mosquito, in which a protozoan, Plasmodium, multiplies in blood every few days.

   Synonyms: ague, paludism

2. archaiccountableuncountableSupposed 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

   Synonyms: miasma

In a sentence

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

Where it comes from

1. Italianmalaria
2. Englishmalaria

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”).