Correct sneezing poster by Meduza
Dear Readers, I suppose it was inevitable but after a six-hour plane flight with a lot of people sneezing and coughing their heads off, I have gone down with a bug and not a nice one either. Last night I was under the covers with my teeth chattering, but today I feel a smidge better, and the whole experience has got my wondering about what exactly a ‘lurgy’ is?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a ‘dreaded lurgy’ as ‘an unspecified or indeterminate disease’, but its etymology is rather interesting. When we were growing up, a fixture on the radio was always The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Eric Sykes. Dad, my brother and I always loved it, while Mum sat in the armchair shaking her head and wondering why we had tears of laughter rolling down our faces. Anyhow, one episode (from 1954) was called ‘Lurgi Strikes Britain’, and it Ned Seagoon has to deal with a highly dangerous, highly infectious and, as it turns out, completely fictitious disease called ‘The Dreaded Lurgi’.
Nowadays, people often use the word ‘lurgy/lurgi/lurgey’ to explain why they can’t come to a social occasion, or go to school. It’s its indeterminate nature that makes it so useful – it’s a disease that’s worse than a cold, not as bad as flu, and isn’t clearly anything else that you can put a name to. I wonder if my North American readers have ever heard of/used the term, or if it’s a purely British thing?
In Canada, a related term seems to be ‘cootie’ – this comes originally from the Malaysian word for ‘louse’, but in Canada it specifically means some kind of germ or contaminant, real or imagined, especially from a member of the opposite sex (and so often used by children at their most squeamish stage). An example of usage from Wikipedia is ‘I’m not using this glass until I’ve washed the cooties off’. Along with ‘chesterfield’ for sofa and ‘toque’ for hat, this feels like a pure Canadianism that I haven’t come across anywhere else.
So now we know! And I’m going back to bed. See you tomorrow!
Thank you, this is very interesting, I knew the word lurgy( having worked in Britain as a chemist), but did not know its origin. The canadianisms in french are quite well known here, but we tend to forget there are some in english
too.
Hope you feel better soon!
Get well soon!
We get the dreaded lurgy in South Africa too. I hope you manage to get rid of your soon!
I hope you feel better soon! I know just what you mean about changing speed: I once enjoyed a canal holiday (maximum speed approx. 3 mph) but the drive home was a horrible shock, even at only 30 mph.
I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling under the weather (now there’s an interesting phrase!) and I do hope you feel better soon. I first heard the word “lurgy” in infant school, when a girl in our class threw up over her desk, and some of the boys started chanting “Shirley’s got the lurgy!” As for “toque”, the only time I’ve come across the word is when I was reading a biography of Queen Mary, wife of George V, who apparently wore one every day. It seemed to be like a turban with added flowers, feathers or jewels, although I can’t imagine there’s much call for this kind of headgear thiese days, so perhaps in Canada “toque” means a different kind of hat. “Chesterfield” made me think of male strippers – but then I realised I was thinking of “Chippendale”!
Toque seems to mean any kind of winter headware in Toronto at least. …
I hope you beat the dreadful lurgy!
I read a lot of Brit Lit and have never come across this term before! Here in the US, we do hear cooties, but it’s generally used by kids, often in a taunting way, to say some kid is unacceptable.
For an indeterminate illness, I’ve heard people say they have the ick or the crud.
I hope you get rid of the lurgy soon!