The Etymology of Malaise
Malaise has the unusual distinction of being borrowed into English twice. The first borrowing, in the 14th century as malese, came directly from Old French and meant simply discomfort or distress; over the next three centuries this word faded from use, displaced by Anglo-Saxon equivalents like unease and discomfort. Then, in 1768, English re-imported the same word from modern French as malaise — this time with a more medical and slightly literary flavour. Doctors used it for the vague, sickly feeling that often precedes a fever; literary writers used it for spiritual or social unease (Jimmy Carter's 1979 speech about American malaise made it a political cliché). The compound is transparent: mal (bad, from Latin malus) plus aise (comfort, ease — the same word as English ease). Malaise is, etymologically, simply bad-ease — and its sister words mal de tête (headache), malheur (misfortune), and malaria (literally bad air) all use the same Latin malus.