influenza
/ˌɪnflʊˈenzə/noun
mass noun
- a highly contagious viral infection of the respiratory passages causing fever, severe aching, and catarrh, and often occurring in epidemics流行性感冒。
派生词
influenzal
adjective词源
mid 18th cent.: from Italian, literally 'influence', from medieval Latin influentia （see INFLUENCE）. The Italian word also has the sense 'an outbreak of an epidemic', hence 'epidemic'. It was applied specifically to an influenza epidemic which began in Italy in 1743, later adopted in English as the name of the disease.