INFLUENZA
Wild Word Friday!
We’re being told quite often via the television, the Internet, and various new sources that this year the United States is being hit hard by the INFLUENZA virus. My husband and I have many parent care responsibilities. His dad is 93, my dad is almost 86, and my mother is 84. We get flu shots each year. Getting a shot is not fun, but it’s a lot better than being sick for a week, and if a shot can keep us from spreading potentially deadly germs to our parents, we’ll gladly take that brief moment of pain.
So where did the INFLUENZA come from anyway? I can’t tell you about the disease itself, but I can shed a little light on the background of the word INFLUENZA. According to the Merriam Webster New Book of Word Histories, the word INFLUENZA comes to English from the Italian language. If we could travel back to Italy of the 1400s, we would find that, at that time, any kind of epidemic was blamed on the influence of the stars. In 1743, an epidemic that was purported to start in Rome, spread throughout Europe and as it spread so did it’s Roman name – INFLUENZA.
I hope you don’t catch the flu this year – or any year, but if you do, I guess you can follow tradition by blaming the stars, but I think you’ll have more luck if you remember all those great old-fashioned cures like chicken soup and lots of sleep.
Did you get an INFLUENZA shot this year? Or did you get the “real thing?”
Blessings and good health!
Sue
I sure did get the flu shot to me so my little one wouldn’t have to suffer, and so did my husband to protect us as well. That was a very interesting article, I never knew any of that information 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to share it!
You’re welcome, Elizabeth. Glad you enjoyed the post!
That’s the same for us, Elizabeth. We might not want the shot for ourselves, but we can’t risk giving influenza to our elderly parents.
That was an interesting story indeed. I had the flu already, right before Christmas, so I am hoping I won’t get it again any time soon.
I hope you stay well now, Jackie! The flu is such a miserable sickness, especially right before Christmas when you have so much to do to get ready for the holiday!!