Flu
Lots of people have been under the influence of the flu this season, but I bet most of them don’t know the word “flu” comes from the Italian influenza di catarro, or “catarrh epidemic,” referring to a disease outbreak in 1743 that spread all over Europe. Influenza in Italian means “influence,” metaphorically any widespread illness, but it was this specific explosion that brought the word to the English, who applied the general Italian term to this particularly nasty stomach bug.