Definitions For Lurgy

Noun

{{en-noun, lurgies}} (British, slang) A fictitious, highly infectious disease; often used in the phrase "the dreaded lurgi", sometimes as a reference to flu-like symptoms (British, slang) Any uncategorised disease with symptoms similar to a cold or flu that renders one unable to work.

Usage notes

Phrases like "I've got the lurgi" are commonly heard when somebody is explaining why they cannot attend a social occasion, come to work, etc. The term is also used in the context of {{w, playground games}}. For example, "You can't play with us; you've got the lurgi!" could be used when excluding another child from a group.

References

Alternative forms

lurgi, lurgey, lurgee, lergy

Etymology

A nonce word popularized by w:spike milligan, spike milligan and w:eric sykes, eric sykes, scriptwriters for a 9 November 1954 programme of w:the goon show, the goon show, "w:list of goon show episodes#fifth series 1954, lurgi strikes britain", in which w:neddie seagoon, ned seagoon must deal with a national outbreak of a highly dangerous, highly infectious and — as it turns out — highly fictitious disease known as the Dreaded Lurgi.{{cite-web, work=World Wide Words, last=Quinion, first=Michael, title=The Dreaded Lurgi, url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dre1.htm, date=November 13, 2004}} w:folk etymology, folk etymologies for this word include: that it is a w:corruption (linguistics), corruption and contraction of the term allergy. This is not supported by the use of the hard 'g' in lurgi (rhyming with fergie), as allergy has a softer 'g' sound similar to a hard 'j'. that it is based on the Northern English dialectal phrase fever-lurgy, , lazy or idle.