lergi, lerghi

British

an unspecified disease, a mysterious infection or illness. An invented word (the 'g' is hard) in imitation of exotic or tropical complaints, much used by schoolchildren in the 1950s and still heard today, often in the phrase 'the dreaded lergi'.

► 'Hilary was supposed to come but she's gone down with the lergi.' (Recorded, housewife, London suburbs, 1986)