lurgyとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

The noun is derived from fever-lurgy, possibly influenced by or related to lurk (“to hang out or wait”). Fever-lurgy is possibly a variant of fever lurden (“idleness regarded as a medical condition”), from fever + lurden, lurdane (“used as a general term of abuse for a person, especially one regarded as dull or idle: loafer, sluggard”). Lurden, lurdane is derived from 中期英語 lurdan (“coward; good-for-nothing person, fool, rascal; lazy person; low-born or ill-mannered person; unfortunate person; wicked person”), from Old French lordin, lourdin, from lourd, lourt, lorz (“clumsy, oafish; heavy”) (modern French lourd) + -in (suffix forming derogatory or diminutive nouns); and lourd from Late Latin lordus, lurdus (“clumsy; heavy slow; stupid”), probably from Latin lūridus (“sallow, wan; ghastly, horrifying”), possibly from lūror (“lividness; paleness, pallor”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₃y- (“bluish”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives).

Noun sense 1.2 (“non-specific disease”) was popularized by the British radio comedy show The Goon Show (first broadcast 1951–1960), especially the episode “Lurgi Strikes Britain” (series 5, episode 7; 9 November 1954) written by the Anglo-Irish comedian Spike Milligan (1918–2002) and the English comedian Eric Sykes (1923–2012), about the outbreak of a highly dangerous and infectious and—as it turns out—fictitious disease known as “the Dreaded Lurgi” created as a scam.

Another suggestion is that the word is a corruption and contraction of allergy, but this is a folk etymology as allergy has a soft g (/dʒ/) while lurgy has a hard /ɡ/ (rhyming with Fergie).

The adjective is probably from an attributive use of the noun.

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lûʹgē, IPA: /ˈlɜːɡi/
• (General American) enPR: lûrʹge, IPA: /ˈlɜɹɡi/
• 韻: -ɜː(ɹ)ɡi
• ハイフネーション: lur‧gy

名詞

lurgy (countable and uncountable, plural lurgies) (humorous, slang)

1. Chiefly preceded by the.
   1. (chiefly England (Cornwall, Northern England), Ireland, archaic) Idleness or laziness regarded as a medical condition; also, depression, especially resulting from a hangover. [from late 18th c.]

      Synonyms: (obsolete) fever lurden, fever-lurgy, (obsolete) lurgy-fever

   2. (possibly by extension, originally UK military slang, now chiefly Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, UK) A non-specific (often infectious) disease, especially one with symptoms similar to those of a cold or flu, which renders one unfit to attend social events, go to work, etc. [from mid 20th c.]

      the dreaded lurgy

      • 2011 October 5, Jonathan Freedland, “David Cameron’s speech fails to match the gravity of the times”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 December 2024:

        He [David Cameron] was helped, of course, by his presentational skills, still present here despite a sore throat and what seemed to be a spot of the perennial conference lurgy.

      • 2019 January 6, Nicola Davis, “Seven ways to dodge a cold – or recover faster”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 January 2026:

        Blocked nose, watering eyes, a sore throat – the signs of a cold are all too familiar. Here are seven ways to dodge the lurgy, or shrug it off sooner [subtitle]

使用する際の注意点

• Phrases like “I’ve got the lurgy” are commonly heard when somebody is explaining why they cannot attend a social occasion, come to work, etc.
• The term is also used in the context of playground games. For example, “You can’t play with us; you’ve got the lurgy!” could be used when excluding another child from a group.

別の表記

• lurgee, lurgey, lurgi

参考

• cootie
• ligma

形容詞

lurgy

1. (chiefly England (Cornwall, Northern England), obsolete) Idle, lazy.

参照

Further reading

• dreaded lurgy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• lurgy (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

アナグラム

• gurly