Grippe can be any kind of contagious viral disease, but traditionally it was used for what we now call influenza.
There came pneumonia and grippe, stalking among them, seeking for weakened constitutions; there was the annual harvest of those whom tuberculosis had been dragging down.
— Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906
Grippe in French literally means "seizure" and is related to the verb gripper ("to grab or seize").