1579: malaria Apr 11, 2019

Throughout history, very little was known about medicine in the scientific way it is now, and this has made subtle lasting impressions on language. For instance, the word ‘malaria’ is a type of parasite transferred by mosquitos, and while in the past it was understood to come after being in swampy areas, it was thought to come from bad air quality. The word ‘malaria’ comes from a contraction of the Italian ‘mala aria’ (bad air). However, this wasn’t only just for bad medicine, as for a while around the 18th century, ‘malaria’ was simply used to describe any kind of swampy environment.

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