morbidity

Recorded since 1656; from morbid, from Latin morbidus (“diseased”), from morbus (“disease”), from the root of morī (“to die”) or from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub, pound, wear away”).

morbidity (countable and uncountable, plural morbidities)

1. The quality of being unhealthful or diseased, sometimes including the cause.
2. The quality of being morbid; an attitude or state of mind marked by gloom.
   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     He taught him how to be superior to human foibles and how to give a godlike laugh at himself as a way of fending off morbidity. He did all the things for him that a woman is grateful for, except that Magnus is a man.

3. (medicine) The incidence of a disease, as a rate of a population which is affected.
4. (medicine, countable) An occurrence of illness or disease, or a single symptom of that illness.
5. (medicine, countable) Adverse effects caused by a medical treatment such as surgery.
6. (demography, insurance) The sickness rate of a population.

• morbidness
• unwholesomeness

• comorbidity (co-morbidity), hypermorbidity

• soreness
• valetudinarianism