I do, though it’s winding down. It’s had me thinking, though, how odd it is that the English word for this common ailment is the same as an adjective for temperature.
What are colds called in other languages?
The word I learned in Spanish class is catarro, but I see that Spanish also uses resfriado or resfriado comun, which pretty much literally translates to “common cold.” (Resfriar = to chill.)
In French it’s Rhume, if Wikipedia is to be believed.
Zukaam in Urdu/Hindi…I think zukaam is a truly Urdu word, but I do not know if there is a word in Hindi for it.
For an interesting fact, to say “I am feeling naseous” in Hindi you say “Dil katcha ho raha hai” which literally means “My heart is feeling raw”. I always liked that one.
Which is also what Inspector Clouseau asks for in a hotel.
The French word is rhume. Looking into it I see it comes from the Latin word for flow - for obvious reasons.
“Erkältung” in German, which is also related to “cold”. It’s based on the idea that being exposed to cold temperatures will cause you to catch a cold. Although feeling chilly at the beginning of a cold is a symptom of the raising fever, not the cause of the disease.
And the German word for the cold outside is “Kälte” - related, but not the same.
In Italian, cold (the illness) is known as “raffreddore”, which literally means … something that makes you cold! Cold, as in temperature, is “freddo”.
Swedish: förkylning. The “kylning” part refers to being cooled. “För” is a modifier that can do all sort of things, including the equivalent English “too/overly”.
In Japanese 風邪 kaze which is made of the two characters for “wind” and “wicked” or “vicious.” We’ll have to wait for one of the Japanese scholars to give the origins for the word.
That’s exactly what the Er- in Erkältung does.
Note that the expression prendre froid (taking cold) is also common. More old fashioned people might also warn that if you don’t cover up, you’re going to attraper la mort (catch death).
*Rhume *is the more “medical” term, and it also applies to hay fever (“rhume des foins”). It also spawned an adverb : enrhumé, which I suppose one could translate as “encolded”.
Strangely, to catch a cold in Chinese is “伤风”, which literally means “hurting/painful/wound wind”.
Interesting. Related?
Thanks for your answers, everyone. Now I’m wondering why it is – Anaglyph, were you speculating, or do you have a cite?
In Kannada, it’s “negadi” (as close as I can get in Latin script). Totally unrelated to the words for feeling cold (chhali) and being cold, like a cold object (thanni-).
And yes, I have a negadi. Most annoying.
Yes, specifically to say in Spanish that you have a cold you say “estoy resfriado” (I am chilled).
I’m assuming that the Chinese came first, and that the Japanese borrowed the idea from Chinese medicine.