malarian.
/məˈlɛːrɪə/, U.S. /məˈlɛriə/ 1. Originally: an unwholesome condition of the atmosphere attributed to marshy districts of Italy and other hot countries; any febrile disease thought to be caused by this. Now: spec. any of a group of diseases of humans and other vertebrates caused by protozoans of the genus Plasmodium (phylum Apicomplexa), which are transmitted by mosquitoes and parasitize red blood cells, resulting in haemolysis, periodic fever, and various other symptoms.Various types of malaria are distinguished especially by the specific name of the causative species of Plasmodium (falciparum, vivax, etc.) or by adjectives designating the periodicity of fever (quartan, tertian, etc.) or other clinical characteristics (algid, cerebral, etc.).
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > fever > [noun] > malaria
fever and ague1666
helodes1724
Roman fever1726
malaria1740
marsh fever1752
fen-fever1772
dumb ague1793
malaria fever1818
Panama fever1849
swamp fever1870
melanuric fever1875
tap1882
subtertian1902
1740 H. Walpole Corr. (1820) I. 68 A horrid thing called the mal'aria, that comes to Rome every summer and kills one.
1801 C. Smith Lett. Solitary Wanderer II. 56 He had prolonged our stay at the season of the mal-aria.
1829 S. Cooper Good's Study Med. (ed. 3) II. 159 The disease hence produced is named, from its source, malaria.
1843 W. H. Prescott Hist. Conquest Mexico I. iii. i. 357 The same burning sun..calls forth the pestilent malaria, with its train of bilious disorders.
1875 C. Merivale Gen. Hist. Rome lxxviii. 656 The malaria of the Campagna..induced the citizens..to reside permanently within their walls.
1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. i. 2 The malaria parasite is not a plasmodium in the zoological meaning of the word.
1940 Amer. Jrnl. Public Health Apr. 410/1 New York City is an endemic area for the occurrence of falciparum malaria.
1964 V. Pohl Dawn & After 131 The winter holidays, when the low veld proper was free from malaria, were set aside for expeditions into what was then wild country.
1980 S. Afr. Panorama Dec. 44 Lonely mounds marked the end of the road for the luckless hunters or transport riders who had succumbed to malaria.
1991 Holiday Which? Jan. 24/2 Even when it's not fatal, some types of malaria can recur throughout your life.
2. figurative. A malign influence. Now rare.
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the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > [noun] > influence or effect
rustOE
malaria1825
1825 Lancet 21 May 200/1 Rome is now not only infected by the malaria of the earth, but that worse malaria of the mind.
1829 R. Southey Sir Thomas More II. 94 Practical irreligion is thus produced even in those who escape the malaria of infidelity.
1854 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes (1855) II. ii. 19 She was as a malaria to him, poisoning his atmosphere.
1862 T. C. Grattan Beaten Paths II. 350 A sort of moral malaria pervading society and carrying off many victims.
2002 www.vafilm.com 3 Jan. (O.E.D. Archive) Perhaps only the extremely successful team of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder could have pulled off this black comedy about the ‘moral malaria’ affecting the American occupation forces in Berlin.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a.
malaria season n.
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1817 Ld. Byron Let. 7 Mar. (1976) V. 181 The coming Spring (which is the Malaria season I understand) would render my stay too short.
1974 P. Dickinson Poison Oracle iv. 111 The malaria season was not yet at its height, but he had been giving them both Paludrine.
b.
malaria-bearing adj.
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1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 947 The malaria-bearing mosquito.
1993 Newsweek 11 Jan. 56/1 Anopheles gambiae, the queen of malaria-bearing mosquitoes.
malaria-carrying adj.
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1916 F. W. Edwards Mosquitoes & their Relation to Dis. 8 This group [of mosquitoes]..includes also several of the malaria-carrying Anopheles.
1974 A. Huxley Plant & Planet xxviii. 328 A local malaria-carrying mosquito..has become resistant to pesticides.
malaria-infected adj.
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1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 947 Mosquitoes reared from the eggs of malaria-infected insects.
1991 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 27 Oct. h2/1 The Panama group, he said, uses malaria-infected blood to transmit the disease to Lyme disease patients.
C2.
malaria fever n. malaria (now rare); the (characteristic pattern of) fever seen in malaria.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > fever > [noun] > malaria
fever and ague1666
helodes1724
Roman fever1726
malaria1740
marsh fever1752
fen-fever1772
dumb ague1793
malaria fever1818
Panama fever1849
swamp fever1870
melanuric fever1875
tap1882
subtertian1902
1818 P. B. Shelley Let. 18 Aug. (1964) II. 34 A malaria fe[ver] [caught] in the Pontine Marshes.
1832 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 525/2 Life [in Padua] creeps away..in having the Malaria fever in summer, and the pleurisy in winter [etc.].
1989 Clin. & Exper. Immunol. 77 361 We suggest that malaria fever is mediated, at least in part, through paroxysmal TNF release associated with schizont rupture.
1990 N. Payne Grenadian Childhood 4 I was..suffering from a every-other-day attack of malaria fever which seemed determined to have me buried before I was seven.
malaria germ n. now rare = malaria parasite n.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > protozoa > class Sporozoa > subclass Teleosporidia > [noun] > order Coccidia > member of genus Plasmodium
malaria germ1898
malaria parasite1898
vivax1930
1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. v. 97 The mosquito,..the alternative host of the malaria germ.
1902 Nature 27 Mar. 500/1 The malaria-germ which is brought by the stab of the Anopheles into the human blood-vessels.
malaria parasite n. a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium (phylum Apicomplexa), the members of which cause malaria in vertebrates.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > protozoa > class Sporozoa > subclass Teleosporidia > [noun] > order Coccidia > member of genus Plasmodium
malaria germ1898
malaria parasite1898
vivax1930
1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. i. 1 The malaria parasite. This organism is by far the most important disease agency in tropical pathology.
1954 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 6 Feb. 291/2 In a group of 102 sicklers..only 10 (9·8%) had blood slides showing malaria parasites.
1993 Independent on Sunday 12 Sept. (Review Suppl.) 52/3 Alarmingly, the malaria parasite is becoming resistant to chloroquine.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2000; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1740