influenza

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An acute contagious disease of the upper airways and lungs, caused by a virus, which rapidly spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics.

   In early 1919 the Board also issued a film, Dr Wise on Influenza, in which a character called 'Brown' spreads the disease by enacting poor behaviours. This did address transport - by boarding a crowded omnibus, "Brown may be scattering germs throughout the carriage and giving influenza to a number of people".

2. 2
   noun

   an acute febrile highly contagious viral disease

Etymology

From Italian influenza (“influence”), from Latin influentia. Doublet of influence.