valetudinarian

comparative more valetudinarian · superlative most valetudinarian

1. Sickly, infirm, of ailing health; related to ill health.

   The valetudinarian habit of discussing his health had grown on Rose[…]

   1910, Florence Anne Sellar MacCunn, Sir Walter Scott's Friends, page 234

   2 more examples

   The virtue which the world wants is a healthful virtue, not a valetudinarian virtue.

   January 1841, Thomas Macaulay, “Comic Dramatists of the Restoration”, in Edinburgh Review

   Mr. Granard became a valetudinarian; he was always applying to some physician or another, perhaps a little to their bewilderment, for no disease was apparent: they knew not that the improvident father feared to die, for the sake of five destitute orphans.

   1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 13

2. Being overly worried about one's health.

   True Madam there are Valetudinarians in Reputation as well as constitution—who being conscious of their weak Part, avoid the least breath of air, and supply their want of Stamina by care and circumspection—

   1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, I.i

plural valetudinarians

1. A person in poor health or sickly, especially one who is constantly obsessed with their state of health

   The most uninformed mind, with a healthy body, is happier than the wisest valetudinarian.

   1787, Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, July 6, 1787 in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Paul Leicester Ford (ed.), Vol. 5, pp. 300-01 (NY: 1904)

   4 more examples

   The evil of the actual disparity in their ages (and Mr. Woodhouse had not married early) was much increased by his constitution and habits; for having been a valetudinarian all his life, without activity of mind or body, he was a much older man in ways than in years; and though everywhere beloved for the friendliness of his heart and his amiable temper, his talents could not have recommended him at any time.

   1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 1, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC

   The cuisine, of course, would not be such as would raise water bubbles in the mouth of a valetudinarian; the carnivorous propensity will mostly be gratified by steak which, when cut, will resemble the Mudhook Yacht Club burgee of rouge et noir; and savory soups and luscious salmon will be luxuries only obtainable in "cannister" form.

   1884, Dixon Kemp, A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing, 4th edition

   Are you a mere valetudinarian, my dear Ladyship, or some prolific mendicant whose bewitched offspring she hopes I can return to human shape?

   1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast

   She affected to be spunky about her ailments and afflictions, but she was in fact an utterly self-centered valetudinarian.

   1985, Louis Auchincloss, Honorable Men