Spanish influenza

See also: Spanish Influenza

English

Alternative forms

Spanish Influenza, Spanish flu, Spanish Flu

Etymology

Named after Spain, which reported on the spread of disease as a neutral state while most other countries fighting World War I impose censorship, leading to a mistaken impression that it was concentrated in Spain.

Noun

Spanish influenza (uncountable)

(pathology) A form of influenza that spread to nearly every part of the world in a pandemic between 1918 and 1920, killing from 20 to 100 million people.
Synonym: purulent bronchitis
- 1920, Oscar Jewell Harvey, The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918‎^[1], Pennsylvania: Wilkes-Barre, page 25:
  By systematic organization and effort we have been endeavoring to combat Spanish Influenza in Luzerne County, with its population of 350,000 souls.

Coordinate terms

Translations

influenza pandemic

Chinese:
Mandarin: 西班牙流感 (zh) (Xībānyá liúgǎn)
Czech: španělská chřipka f
Danish: spanske syge
Dutch: Spaanse griep
Esperanto: hispana gripo
Estonian: Hispaania gripp (et)
Finnish: espanjantauti (fi)
Galician: gripe española f, gripo m
German: Spanische Grippe (de) f
Hungarian: spanyolnátha (hu)
Icelandic: spænska veikin
Japanese: スペイン風邪 (ja) (Supein kaze), スペインかぜ (ja)
Portuguese: gripe espanhola f
Russian: испа́нка (ru) f (ispánka)
Spanish: gripe española (es) f, gripe de 1918 f, gripe de 18 f
Swedish: spanska sjukan (sv)