malinger

See also: målinger and Malinger

English

WOTD – 22 July 2007

Etymology

From French malingrer, from adjective malingre (“delicate, fragile”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈlɪŋɡə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /məˈlɪŋɡɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋɡə(ɹ)

Verb

malinger (third-person singular simple present malingers, present participle malingering, simple past and past participle malingered)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To feign illness, injury, or incapacitation in order to avoid work, obligation, or perilous risk.

   Hypernyms: (dated) goldbrick, shirk

   It is not uncommon on exam days for several students to malinger rather than prepare themselves.

   • 1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egotist […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 13:

     And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! / Smoothed by long fingers, / Asleep … tired … or it malingers, / Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.

   • 1984, The Psychiatric Quarterly‎^[1], volume 56:

     It has been the impression of past investigators that persons who malinger psychosis have latent tendencies for the condition.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To self-inflict real injury or infection (to inflict self-harm) in order to avoid work, obligation, or perilous risk.

Derived terms

• malingerer
• malingering
• malingery

Translations

to feign illness

• Arabic: تَمَارَضَ (tamāraḍa)
• Bulgarian: преструвам се на болен (prestruvam se na bolen)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 詐病／诈病 (zaa³ beng⁶)

  Mandarin: 裝病／装病 (zh) (zhuāngbìng)

• Czech: simulovat (cs) impf, hodit se marod (cs) pf
• Finnish: tekeytyä sairaaksi, teeskennellä sairasta
• French: feindre la maladie, faire le malade, se faire porter pâle (fr)
• German: simulieren (de)
• Hungarian: szimulál (hu), betegnek adja ki magát, színlel (hu), tettet (hu)
• Irish: bheith ag meathlóireacht
• Japanese: 仮病を使う (kebyō o tsukau)
• Korean: 꾀병을 부리다 (kkoebyeong'eul burida)
• Maori: whakangehengehe
• Polish: symulować (pl) impf, udawać chorego impf, udać chorego pf
• Portuguese: fingir estar doente
• Russian: притворя́ться больны́м impf (pritvorjátʹsja bolʹným), притвори́ться больны́м pf (pritvorítʹsja bolʹným), прики́дываться больны́м impf (prikídyvatʹsja bolʹným), прики́нуться больны́м pf (prikínutʹsja bolʹným), симули́ровать (ru) impf or pf (simulírovatʹ) (in clinical context)
• Spanish: hacerse el enfermo

See also

• factitious disorder, differentiated from malingering by a component of real mental illness as opposed to solely a sane calculation of shirking
• fakeclaim: to call out someone for, or accuse someone of, either factitious pretense or malingering

Anagrams

• Germinal, germinal, maligner

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

malinger m or f

1. indefinite plural of maling