dengue
DEN-gay · noun
Origin
The word entered English in 1828 from West Indian Spanish dengue, which came from Kiswahili dinga (short for kidingapopo or kidinga pepo), meaning a sudden cramp-like seizure caused by an evil spirit.
This is Curio: one word's origin story, every morning. No feed, no backlog.
One short email each morning. Free; stop anytime. See a sample →
Journey
When the Kiswahili word was borrowed into Spanish, it shifted in spelling to dengue because that word already existed in Spanish meaning 'fastidiousness' — a folk connection made because sufferers of chikungunya, which was also once called dengue until the early 20th century, disliked moving.