Malcolm Boyd
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A recipe: combine a handful of the blahs, a pinch of the blues, and maybe a soupçon of ennui, season generously with “under the weather,” and voila, you’ve got yourself the stew of sinking sensations known as malaise. Malaise, whose Old French ancestor was formed from the combination of mal (“bad”) and aise (“comfort”), has been a part of English since the mid-18th century. It originally referred to a vague feeling of weakness or discomfort accompanying the onset of an illness—a meaning still in use today when a virus or other malady starts producing symptoms—but has since broadened to cover a general, ominous sense of mental or moral ill-being.
Examples of malaise in a Sentence
PC Magazine, 18 Oct. 2025
There appears to be a direct link, in this data and increasing numbers of analyses among social scientists, to dissatisfaction with work and a wider malaise in American society.
—Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 18 Oct. 2025
To me, one antidote for those malaises is the embrace of craft for craft’s sake.
—Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2025
His inauguration in 2024, after years of political malaise, raised hopes that rampant corruption and chronic malpractices could finally be reined in.
—Ladan Anoushfar, CNN Money, 18 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malaise
Cite this Entry
“Malaise.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malaise. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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