disease English · revision 2691

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1338, Mannyng|origins=fro desaise}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /dɪˈziːz/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|disese]], deses,^(MWU 2024)^(Barnhart 1988) [[bor|xno|desease]], Old French desaise “lack, want; discomfort, distress; trouble; sickness”,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002) from des- “without, away” and aise “ease”,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) the source of [[ease]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) The verb is from Old French desaisier, from the noun.^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Absence of ease, discomfort, trouble: before 1338, in Mannyng's ''Chronicle of England'',^(Barnhart 1988) about 1330 in the OED,^(OED 1989) the early 14th century in Etymonline.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ At first disease was “lack of ease, inconvenience, trouble”, as in French.^(Cresswell 2021) The sense of sickness, first recorded in Gower's ''Confessio Amantis'' (1393), often had to be inferred from the context, as a particular discomfort;^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) the restricted sense “illness” had emerged by the late 14th century.^(Etymonline) Trench notes that the limitation is natural, since nothing wars against ease like a sick body, but that ''disease'' once meant any distress:^(Trench 1859) Wycliffe's Bible has “a greet diseese schal be on the erthe”, and Tyndale “why diseasest thou the master?”^(Trench 1859)^(Etymonline) The old sense became obsolete in the 17th century,^(Cresswell 2021) though it was still sometimes used in the early 17th century and was revived in the 20th, usually hyphenated as dis-ease.^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) A particular kind of illness is from 1460–70,^(OED 1989) and a morbid condition of the mind or of society from 1509.^(OED 1989) The verb, “to make uneasy”, from the mid-14th century, is obsolete, and “to infect with disease” is from the late 15th century.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) ''Diseased'' is from before 1398.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1338 – discomfort, trouble.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * mid-14th century – verb, to make uneasy.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1393 – illness, sickness.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * before 1398 – ''diseased''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1460–70 – a particular disease.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1509 – a morbid condition of the mind or society.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A disorder of the body, mind or another living thing, with recognizable signs or [[symptom|alt=symptoms]]; an [[illness]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # A particular kind of such disorder: ''heart disease''.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+ # A harmful condition of society or of the mind.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+ # ''(obsolete)'' Discomfort, trouble.^(MW Collegiate)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[diseased]]

+ * [[diseasedly]]

+ * [[diseasedness]]

+ * [[Dutch elm disease]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[ease]]

+ * [[easy]]

+ * [[malaise]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ In west Somerset dialect ''disease'' still meant annoyance or discomfort in the late 19th century.^(Wright 1898) The hyphenated ''dis-ease'' is used for a lack of ease.^(SOED 2002)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}