murrain

English

Alternative forms

• murrein (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English moreyn, from Middle French morine, and Anglo-Norman mourine, moreyn, from Medieval Latin morticinium, ultimately from a form of Latin morior (“to die”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʌɹɪn/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

murrain (countable and uncountable, plural murrains)

1. (archaic) Plague, infectious disease, pestilence.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For heauen it selfe shall their successe enuy, / And them with plagues and murrins pestilent / Consume, till all their warlike puissaunce be spent.

2. (archaic) Curse.
   • 1802, Joanna Baillie, A Series of Plays on the Passions of the Mind, III, The Second Marriage: Act 2, Scene 5.

     Nurse. Let him take what he gets, an' a murrain to him! he had no business to bring her here to torment us all, after the dear lady we have lost.

   • 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume II (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 187:

     A murrain on thy voice! it is enough to fray every hawk from the perch.

   • 1935, Ezra Pound, Canto XLV:

     Usura is a murrain, usura blunteth the needle in the maid’s hand and stoppeth the spinner’s cunning.

3. (veterinary medicine, chiefly historical) Any of several highly infectious diseases of cattle such as anthrax.

Translations

disease of cattle

• Arabic: مَوْتَان (mawtān)
• Galician: morriña (gl) f, rabuxa f
• Greek: επιζωοτία (el) f (epizootía)
• Irish:

  Old Irish: moirtchenn m or n

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ottoman Turkish: موتان (mutan)
• Polish: mór (pl) m, pomór (pl) m
• Portuguese: morrinha (pt) f
• Russian: падёж (ru) m (padjóž), мор (ru) m (mor)
• Spanish: morriña (es) f