A disease, illness, or disorder of the body or mind; a problem that needs fixing.
From Old French 'maladie' (mal 'bad' + -adie 'condition'). The root 'mal' comes from Latin 'malus' meaning 'bad.' Has been used since the 1300s.
We often use 'malady' for non-physical problems—'a social malady' or 'an economic malady'—which shows how the metaphor of sickness is useful for describing anything broken that needs healing.
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