Our word malinger appears in a poem I love, T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The speaker personifies time, saying it pretends to be sick so it can hang around lazily:

"And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me."

The poem is packed with Make Your Point words, likely because the speaker is articulate and educated, the irony being that he can't connect with anyone. Womp, womp.

Check out some more of his musings, and see if you can fill in the missing words:

"Streets that follow like a t____us (1) argument
Of in____ous (2) intent."

     1: "boring, repetitive, taking a long time"
     2: "secret, sneaky, tricky"

"For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
               So how should I pr___me (3)?"

     3: "take it upon myself, make a move"

"I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Sc___ing (4) across the floors of silent seas."

     4: "moving along with quick little steps"

"No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Def____tial (5), glad to be of use,
P___tic (6), cautious, and m_tic___us (7);
Full of high sentence, but a bit ob___e (8)."

     5: "respectful of someone else's authority"
     6: "sensible, shrewd, wise"
     7: "careful about all the little details"
     8: "blunt, insensitive, annoying"

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

"Malinger" probably comes from the French malingre, meaning "sickly or ailing," and possibly traces further back to the Latin male habitus, "in bad shape: feeling sick, doing poorly."

In the late 1700s in English, we started referring to soldiers who pretended to be sick to get out of duty as malingerers. The meaning broadened, and now anyone who plays sick to avoid work is likely to get called a malingerer.

From that noun, "malingerer," we invented the verb, "malinger," which we've used since 1820 or so. To malinger is to act like you're sick, or to act like you're sicker than you actually are, so that you can avoid work, avoid punishment, or get some kind of benefit.

You might wonder if malingering has something to do with lingering, but their similarities are probably a coincidence. While "malinger" possibly traces back to that Latin phrase for "in bad shape," "linger" traces to an Old English word meaning "to lengthen, or to prolong."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Verb, usually the intransitive kind: "They were malingering;" "They were caught malingering."

In healthcare, you might see "malinger" used transitively, in reference to people who malinger symptoms or malinger conditions. For example, the DSM-V refers to people "who malinger dissociative identity disorder."

Other forms: 

People who malinger are "malingerers," and the act of malingering is either just "malingering" or "malingery," whichever you prefer.

If you need an adjective, "malingering" will probably work.

how to use it:

Pick the precise, literary, somewhat rare word "malinger" when you want to strike a formal, serious tone as you describe someone who's faking sick, physically or mentally, to get what they want.

Say that someone is malingering: "He was definitely malingering to stay home from school;" "I wasn't sure if she was truly sick or just malingering;" "He looks for signs that the patient may be malingering."

examples:

"Bowles had a college education—he had been only six hours a cowboy when he learned to malinger on the job."
  — Dane Coolidge, Bat Wing Bowles, 1914

"I was as faithful a wage slave as ever capitalist exploited. To shirk or malinger on the man who paid me my wages was a sin, first, against myself, and second, against him. I considered it a crime second only to treason and just about as bad.''
  — Jack London, War of the Classes, 1905

has this page helped you understand "malinger"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "malinger" without saying "fake sick" or "exaggerate symptoms."

try it out:

Check out this example, from a novel by William Dean Howells:

"It used to be said, in the old times, that 'it was human nature' to shirk and malinger and loaf, but we have found that it is no such thing. We have found that it is human nature to work cheerfully, willingly, eagerly, at the tasks which all share for the supply of the common necessities."

Hmm, what do you think? Is it human nature to malinger? Or is it human nature to take up our work cheerfully, knowing we're doing it to take care of each other? If it depends, what does it depend on?

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Alliterate a Little; It'll Lift It."

I'll give you a phrase that doesn't alliterate, and you'll make it alliterate by changing one or both words—while preserving, as best you can, the meaning of the original.

For example: A car that demands too much fuel is a "gas guzzler." But what alliterative term could you invent for a dishwasher that demands too much detergent? 

You could call it a "soap slurper," or a "detergent devourer."

Try this one today...

People love to throw a "birthday bash." But what alliterative term could you invent for a Halloween party?

To see one possible answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of MALINGERING (the adjective) could be

A. ANALYZING.
B. DISAPPEARING.
C. HARDWORKING.

2. As the DSM-V noted, "The essential feature of malingering is _____."

A. difficulty in adjusting to a new culture (e.g., following migration)
B. discomfort resulting from treatment (e.g., medication side effects)
C. the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychological symptoms

Answers to the review questions: 1. C 2. C From the game: Any alliterative label you came up with is great! Mine is "Halloween Hootenanny."

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.