Word.ws English Dictionary

English disease

English disease proper noun: football (soccer) hooliganism.

Proper noun

the English disease

  1. Football (soccer) hooliganism.
  2. Depression (especially suicidal).
  3. Hypochondria.
  4. Sweating sickness.
  5. Gout.
  6. Rickets.
  7. Syphilis.
  8. Bronchitis.
  9. Tuberculosis.
  10. Laziness; low motivation.
  11. Poor industrial relations and the resulting economic weakness.
  12. Masochism, especially a fondness for flagellation.
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. Gambling.
  2. Haemophilia.
  3. Homosexuality.

Origin of English disease

A calque of phrases from various languages, including the French maladie anglaise, Polish angielska choroba, German englische Krankheit, and the Russian англи́йская боле́знь (anglíjskaja boléznʹ).

Questions about English disease

What does English disease mean?
English disease means football (soccer) hooliganism.
What part of speech is English disease?
English disease is a proper noun.

Words near English disease in the dictionary

  1. English cocker spaniel
  2. English cocker spaniels
  3. English covenants
  4. English cream
  5. English daisy
  6. English disease
  7. English elm
  8. English elms
  9. English English
  10. English fever
  11. English flute

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: English disease (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “English disease.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/english_disease. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.