malaise

See also: Malaise and malaisé

English

Etymology

From French malaise (“ill ease”), from mal- (“bad, badly”) + aise (“ease”). Compare ill at ease.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈleɪz/, /mæˈleɪz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈleɪz/, /mɑˈleɪz/, /-ˈlɛz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪz
• Homophone: Malays

Noun

malaise (countable and uncountable, plural malaises)

1. A feeling of general bodily discomfort, fatigue or unpleasantness, often at the onset of illness.

   Synonyms: unease, doldrums, ill at ease

   • 2019 August 21, Adrienne Matei, “Shock! Horror! Do you know how much time you spend on your phone?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Addressing tech malaise has become a trend with authors and self-help coaches – such as Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone, who, during a $295, 50-minute phone call, will offer you advice on things like how to create roadblocks to checking your phone by putting a rubber band around your screen, and “think of the bigger picture” rather than what you’re missing on Twitter.

2. An ambiguous feeling of mental or moral depression.

   Synonyms: melancholy, weltschmerz, angst

   • 2003, Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War:

     Their failure helped produce the widespread malaise reported by Thucydides: the Athenians "grieved over their private sufferings, the common people because, having started out with less, they were deprived even of that; the rich had lost their beautiful estates in the country, the houses as well as their expensive furnishings, but worst of all, they had war instead of peace" (2.65.2).

3. Ill will or hurtful feelings for others or someone.

Derived terms

• videomalaise

Related terms

• disease

Translations

bodily feeling

• Arabic: تَوَعُّك m (tawaʕʕuk), عَلَز m (ʕalaz)
• Bulgarian: неразположение (bg) n (nerazpoloženie)
• Catalan: malestar (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不舒服 (zh) (bùshūfu), 不適／不适 (zh) (bùshì), 欠安 (zh) (qiàn'ān)

• Czech: malátnost f
• Dutch: ongesteldheid (nl) f
• Finnish: huonovointisuus, pahanolontunne
• French: malaise (fr) m
• German: Unbehagen (de) n, Unwohlsein (de) n
• Greek: αδιαθεσία (el) (adiathesía)
• Hungarian: gyengélkedés (hu), rossz közérzet (hu)
• Irish: easláinte f, meath-thinneas m
• Italian: malessere (it) m
• Japanese: 不快 (ja) (ふかい, fukai)
• Korean: 불쾌감(不快感) (bulkwaegam)
• Persian: ناخوشی (fa) (nâxoši)
• Portuguese: mal-estar (pt) m
• Romanian: indispoziție (ro)
• Russian: недомога́ние (ru) n (nedomogánije)
• Serbo-Croatian: malaksalost (sh) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: njederjeměśe n

• Spanish: malestar (es) m
• Swedish: sjukdomskänsla, illamående (sv) n, olust (sv) c

ambiguous feeling of mental or moral depression

• Arabic: كَرَب (ar) m (karab), كَآبَة f (kaʔāba), أَسَف m (ʔasaf)
• Bulgarian: безпокойство (bg) n (bezpokojstvo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不安 (zh) (bù'ān)

• Dutch: teneergeslagenheid f
• Finnish: mielipaha (fi), pahanolontunne
• Japanese: 不快 (ja) (ふかい, fukai), 不安 (ja) (ふあん, fuan)
• Korean: 불안감(不安感) (buran'gam)
• Persian: ناخوشی (fa) (nâxoši)
• Russian: дискомфо́рт (ru) m (diskomfórt)
• Swedish: olust (sv) c

Further reading

• malaise on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Malesia, seamail

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.lɛz/

Etymology 1

From mal- +‎ aise.

Noun

malaise m (plural malaises)

1. malaise, uneasiness, cringe
2. episode of being taken ill, especially suddenly
   • 2022, Mylène Crête, “Un avocat victime d'un malaise, les travaux interrompus”, in La Presse:

     Les travaux de la Commission sur l’état d’urgence ont été interrompus mercredi après que l’un de ses avocats eût subi un malaise. Gabriel Poliquin questionnait alors le sous-solliciteur général de l’Ontario, Mario Di Tommaso, lorsqu’il s’est subitement effondré.

     The work of the Public Order Emergency Commission was interrupted Wednesday after one of its attorneys suddenly fell ill. Gabriel Poliquin was questioning the deputy solicitor general of Ontario, Mario Di Tommaso, when he suddenly collapsed.

Derived terms

• malaisant

Etymology 2

see malais

Adjective

malaise

1. feminine singular of malais

Further reading

• “malaise”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch malaise, from French malaise.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [maˈlai̯sə]
• Hyphenation: ma‧lai‧sê

Noun

malaisê (first-person possessive malaiseku, second-person possessive malaisemu, third-person possessive malaisenya)

1. (economics) depression, a period of major economic contraction.
2. (medicine) malaise, a feeling of general bodily discomfort, fatigue or unpleasantness, often at the onset of illness.

Further reading

• “malaise” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.