malinger

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)

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• Audio (AU)

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• 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, T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, published 1917:

     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, 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 (zaa3 beng6) Mandarin: 裝病／装病 (zh) (zhuāngbìng) 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 Portuguese: fingir estar doente Russian: притворя́ться больны́м impf (pritvorjátʹsja 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

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Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

malinger m or f

1. indefinite plural of maling