flun.
/fluː/, U.S. /flu/ Originally and still somewhat colloquial.
1.
a. = influenza n. 1. Frequently with the.Asian, Mao, Spanish flu, etc.: see the first element.Avian and swine flu are often used for the human disease caused by influenza viruses closely related to animal viruses: cf. sense 2.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > fever > [noun] > influenza
influenza1743
grippe1775
lightning catarrh1836
flu1839
Spanish influenza1890
St. Kilda cold1897
Spanish flu1918
Asian flu1957
Asian influenza1957
Mao flu1968
Asian contagion1997
1839 R. Southey Select. from Lett. 13 Aug. (1856) IV. 574 I have had a pretty fair share of the Flue.
1854 J. L. C. Richardson Summer's Excursion in N. Z. vii. 149 The landlord was ill of the ‘flue’, so this Sydney-imported influenza is poetically called.
1895 Punch 28 Sept. 149/1 Bin laid up with the Flu, like my betters, and still feel a little bit squiffy.
1918 W. Owen Let. 24 June (1967) 560 About 30 officers are smitten with the Spanish Flu.
1935 G. Barker Janus 151 She's in bed; she's got the 'flu.
1936 E. S. Bartlett in Golden Hoof viii. 97 Sweep the country it [sc. Australian sheep-shearing practice] did, like an epidemic of flu, from Arizona to Montana, in a single season.
1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Nov. p. ii/3 When the place is snowbound and the staff laid low with flu, the girls take over.
1989 Australasian Post (Melbourne) 26 Aug. 20/2 If every Australian took extracts of the echinacea plant..then absenteeism from colds and flu would be halved.
1992 A. Brookner Fraud (1993) xvii. 216 And then to die so young! An attack of flu, which turned into a particularly virulent form of pneumonia.
2004 Dallas Morning News (Nexis) 16 Nov. 1 e For each day you were in bed with the flu, your post-flu resistance is lower for three days.
2009 New Scientist 31 Oct. 41/3 This pandemic is very far from the worst-case scenario, but it is not normal flu either.
b. More generally: a relatively severe or feverish common cold or similar acute respiratory infection (also flu cold). Also (with distinguishing word): any of various illnesses with influenza-like symptoms.yuppie flu: see the first element.In some contexts difficult to distinguish from sense 1a.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorder of respiratory organs > [noun] > common cold or catarrh
poseOE
rheuma1398
cold?a1425
snekec1440
refraidourc1450
murr1451
gravedity1547
coldment1578
snorea1585
catarrh1588
coqueluche1611
gravediny1620
coryza1634
snurl1674
catch-cold1706
gravedo1706
common cold1713
coolth?1748
snuffles1770
snifters1808
influenza cold1811
snaffles1822
the sniffles1825
snuffiness1834
crying cold1843
flu1899
1899 Punch 27 Dec. 305/2 On the same principle..the Running Cold in the Head, and the Serial Attack of Flu will be current, if not fashionable, at this season of the year.
1919 Jrnl. Amer. Osteopathic Assoc. Mar. 352/1 Undoubtedly this is beneficial even in cases of ‘colds’, especially in ‘flu’ colds, of moderate severity.
1939 Indiana State Board of Health Monthly Bull. 42 8/2 This practise of calling every cold a case of ‘flu’ is responsible for much misunderstanding.
1955 A. Atkinson Exit Charlie (1957) iv. 111 We're short-handed, for one thing—we have two girls off with flu, and a temporary woman we got in is terribly slow.
1971 ‘A. Cross’ Theban Myst. x.145 It's just one of those flu things I always seem to get at winter's last gasp, nothing serious.
1982 I. Hamilton Robert Lowell vi. 79 Jean..began falling victim to a series of minor illnesses—six-week flu,..strange fevers that came and went.
1992 Independent 30 June 13/5 ‘Dipping flu’ has long been accepted by farmers as a routine hazard and few ever report it to the doctor.
2000 Daily Tel. 17 Aug. 18/8 If you suffer from recurrent fevers, headaches and chills, you may be coming down with pigeon flu. The disease, transmitted to people in dried pigeon droppings, is on the increase.
2004 Sugar Nov. 45/2 French kissing could help you fight off flus and colds.
2010 Church Times 19 Feb. 17/1 Think of the times when you have just had a filthy cold or ‘man flu’.
c. figurative. A prevailing craze; a disordered condition; a supposed illness offered as an excuse for industrial action, absence, etc. Usually with modifying word. Cf. influenza n. 2.Recorded earliest in French 'flu n. at French adj. and n. Compounds 1b, blue flu n. at blue adj. and n. Compounds 1d.
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the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [noun] > the or a prevailing fashion > fashionable thing or craze
new fangle1548
furor1704
fever1761
rage1780
go1784
the fashion1790
furore1790
fashionablea1800
craze1813
delirament1856
fad1881
fash1895
new thinga1911
flu1943
kick1946
1943 A. Koestler in Tribune (London) 26 Nov. 12/2 The managerial class on Parnassus..have lately been affected by a new outbreak of that recurrent epidemic, the French 'Flu.
1967 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 16 June 3/4 Nearly 200 of Detroit's..policemen called in sick..after some of their number had been disciplined... Dubbed ‘blue flu’ by observers, the rash of sick call-ins appeared likely to grow.
1975 Time (Canada ed.) 9 June 7/2 Last week, that malaise assumed a new form: the ‘Mackasey Flu’, a term coined to describe mass union walkouts in Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa in protest against an unprecedented tough line by Postmaster General Bryce Mackasey.
1991 P. J. O'Rourke Parl. of Whores (1992) 24 I was pretty much confined to my hotel room with a case of the six-pack flu.
1993 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 12 July d4/6 Whenever I attend four successive games with the roof closed I experience a weltschmerz,..something like March in Winnipeg. I call it ‘dome flu’.
1996 T. Koppel & K. Gibson Nightline xiv. 340 Elsewhere in Moscow, ‘coup flu’ seemed to be sweeping through the high echelons of Soviet power: it was an epidemic of cowardice.
2005 Word Feb. 128 If you've got the downloadin' pneumonia or the music software flu, our MP3 NHS is here to help.
2. Any of various acute, usually severe, infectious respiratory diseases in domestic or wild animals; spec. such diseases caused by type A influenza viruses in horses, pigs, and certain other mammals; = influenza n. 3.avian flu, swine flu, etc.: see the first element.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of animals generally > [noun] > bacterial or viral
heartwater1880
pseudotuberculosis1888
coccidiosis1892
sarcosporidiosis1893
agalaxia1894
agalactia1897
actinobacillosis1903
Aujeszky's disease1906
necrobacillosis1907
pseudorabies1912
flu1920
tick-borne fever1921
leptospirosis1926
mad itch1931
Rift Valley fever1931
theileriasis1944
vibriosis1951
arenovirus1970
arenavirus1971
1920 J. W. Connaway Hog Cholera & Immature Corn (Univ. of Missouri Agric. Exper. Station Bull. 174) 10 (heading) ‘Swine Influenza’ or ‘Hog Flu’.
1935 E. H. Barger & L. E. Card Dis. & Parasites Poultry vii. 152 Laryngotracheitis (also known as infectious bronchitis, infectious tracheitis, ‘flu’) is an acute, highly contagious disease of fowls characterized by respiratory distress, rapid spread and, in many cases, high mortality.
1970 K. V. F. Jubb & P. C. Kennedy Pathol. Domest. Animals (ed. 2) iii. 166/2 Feline viral rhinotracheitis was undoubtedly the principal infection in ‘cat distemper’ or ‘cat flu’, etc., until Crandall and Maurer gave it pathological distinction.
1995 Daily Mail 19 Oct. 46 A secondary problem of cat flu is sinusitis which causes chronic sneezing and discharges from the eyes and nose.
2007 b magazine (Brisbane) 9 Oct. 12/1 Horse flu may have stopped local racing but Eagle Farm is determined that fans will still be able to enjoy the spring carnival festivities.
3. With distinguishing word, esp. in gastric flu, intestinal flu: acute gastro-enteritis with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea, esp. when occurring as an epidemic (such as those caused by noroviruses).
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorders of stomach > [noun] > inflammation
gastritis1806
gastro-enteritis1825
gastro-duodenitis1834
flu1921
1921 Forty-first Ann. Rep. State Dept. Health N.Y. II. 154 There had been presented no specific evidence indicating that the water supply was..the cause of the colitis. On the contrary, there seemed to be a general grippe or intestinal flu.
1945 D. Thomas Let. 6 Feb. (1987) 538 I was, strictly, in bed, in Chelsea, in London, in pain, with gastric flu.
1993 Harrowsmith Aug. 83/3 People who have mild symptoms, such as abdominal cramps or vomiting, assume that their illness is stomach flu or mild food poisoning.
1997 Sunday Tel. 15 June (Rx Mag.) 15/2 Last disease season, I was astonished to find that I weathered the lot—including the killer gastric flu that floored the rest of my family.
1999 J. Elkington & J. Hailes New Foods Guide iii. 59 Salmonella: This is not a single bacterium, but a cast of thousands. The symptoms are like those caused by intestinal flu.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive, as flu germ, flu season, flu shot, flu vaccine, etc.
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1909 Autocar 9 Oct. 31/3 (advt.) Two inoculations of Flux the ‘Flu’ Cure..taken now will render you immune from influenza and its attendant ills during the whole of this winter.
1911 Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 239/2 We naturally ask ourselves what season—the ‘flu’ season, or was it the festive season?
1930 Popular Sci. Mar. 48/2 (heading) Discovery of ‘Flu’ Germ Awaits Confirmation.
1957 Changing Times Jan. 36/1 Nothing like a real flu flare-up came either during the winter of 1954 or last year.
1962 F. O'Connor Let. 10 Feb. (1979) 464 Regina can have flu shots so she didn't have the flu but she got a rousing cold in the head.
1994 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 26 Nov. 2/5 This year's flu vaccine contains two type A strains—Shangdong and Texas—and type B Panama.
2006 P. Williams Rise & Fall Yummy Mummy xvi. 123 They're crammed full of office people..talking inanely about sandwich fillings and their flu symptoms.
b.
flu epidemic n.
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1920 Rotarian June 333/2 (advt.) He got married during the ‘Flu’ epidemic.
1933 C. Brooks Jrnl. 23 Jan. (1998) 45 The country is in the grip of a 'flu epidemic and London is smitten by an unauthorised strike of busmen.
1954 L. Armstrong Satchmo vii. 112 A serious 'flu epidemic had hit New Orleans. Everybody was down with it, except me. That was because I was physic-minded. I never missed a week without a physic.
1984 I. Doig Eng. Creek (1985) i. 97 The flu epidemic during the world war: he remembered death outrunning the hearse capacity.
2005 I. McEwan Saturday i. 9 Elsewhere in the room, the talk was of the flu epidemic—one of the scrub nurses and a trainee Operating Department Practitioner working for Jay Strauss were sent home that morning.
flu jab n.
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1991 Independent 23 Dec. 11/7 In doctors' surgeries up and down the country, people are having their flu jabs.
2005 Trav. Afr. Autumn 115/3 The flu jab doesn't offer any protection against avian flu, but it stops seasonal flu.
C2. Instrumental.
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1920 Lyceum Mag. Mar. 39/2 Such is the gist of a frank confession..just received from a flu-ridden lyceum town in Northern Idaho.
1951 W. H. Auden Nones (1952) 28 Little birds with scarlet legs, Sitting on their speckled eggs, Eye each flu-infected city.
2001 D. Burns Storey's Horse-Lover's Encycl. 148/1 It may be wise to give antibiotics to prevent secondary bacterial infections from taking hold in a flu-weakened horse.
C3.
flu bug n. (originally) the influenza virus; (in later use also) influenza; an illness resembling influenza.
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1918 Fort Des Moines (Iowa) Post 18 Oct. 5/3 Little gauze bandages which were worn over the nose and face here to keep the Spanish ‘flu’ bug from biting.
1966 Issues Criminol. 2 195 In the middle of the summer I got a cold, some sort of flu bug you know.
1990 M. Winegardner Prophet of Sandlots ix. 160 He admitted to his coach that he'd been weak from a flu bug that had run through the campus.
2011 Independent 6 Jan. 15/1 (headline) Britain phones in sick as flu bug spreads—and it's going to get worse.
flu virus n. = influenza virus n.
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the world > life > biology > organism > micro-organism > virus > [noun] > types of
latent virus1750
influenza virus1880
poxvirus1891
filter-passer1906
mosaic virus1914
bacteriophage1921
herpes virus1925
Rous sarcoma virus1925
Rous virus1925
papillomavirus1935
poliovirus1939
Semliki Forest virus1944
actinophage1947
mycophage1947
mengovirus1949
tumour virus1950
Zika1952
mycobacteriophage1953
Sindbis virus1953
myxovirus1954
echovirus1955
RNA virus1955
adenovirus1956
SV1956
arborvirus1957
enterovirus1957
foamy virus1957
respiratory syncytial virus1957
polyoma1958
parainfluenza1959
reovirus1959
arbovirus1960
cytomegalovirus1960
TMV1960
vacuolating agent or virus1960
Coxsackie virus1961
rhinovirus1961
RSV1961
papovavirus1962
paramyxovirus1962
picornavirus1962
mycophage1963
parvovirus1965
rhabdovirus1966
Ross River virus1966
coronavirus1968
EBV1968
Epstein–Barr virus1968
leukovirus1968
CMV1969
arenovirus1970
oncornavirus1970
togavirus1970
alphavirus1971
calicivirus1971
Dane particle1971
flavivirus1971
flavovirus1971
maedi1971
orbivirus1971
mycovirus1972
visna-maedi virus1972
flu virus1973
maedi-visna virus1973
corona1974
orthopoxvirus1974
rotavirus1974
whitepox1974
retravirus1975
Ebola virus1976
morbillivirus1976
retrovirus1976
Ebola1977
lentivirus1979
reassortant1979
HTLV1980
morbilli1981
filovirus1982
LAV1983
CV1985
HIV1986
HIV virus1987
C-192020
Covid2020
Covid-192020
CV-192020
1973 N.Y. Times 28 Jan. i. 40/4 The flu viruses that cause worldwide epidemics may be terrestrial ‘Andromeda strains’ coming to man from the barnyard.
1991 A. Nikiforuk Fourth Horseman ix. 150 He discovered that Iowa porkers normally carried a parasitic lungworm that also sheltered the flu virus.
1999 Wall St. Jrnl. 8 Oct. b1/1 Both of the new drugs..are effective in treating type A and type B flu viruses, unlike older flu drugs, which fight only type A.
Derivatives
'flu-like adj.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > fever > [adjective] > influenza
influenzal1803
influenzaed1836
influenzacized1849
influenzic1887
grippé1890
gripped1892
'flu-like1941
1941 Fitchburg (Mass.) Sentinel 11 Jan. 3/5 The prevalence of a flu-like illness throughout the city..has cut deeply in school attendance.
1997 New Scientist 26 Apr. 13/4 Hantaviruses, which at first cause flu-like symptoms but can eventually kill by filling the sufferer's lungs with fluid, are usually spread by rodents.
2004 R. Sullivan Rats xvii. 178 In November 2002, two tourists went to the Plaza Hotel for dinner and came down with flulike symptoms the next day.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1839