Valetudinarious

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Someone who is sickly and in fragile health ; a person who is preoccupied with and anxious about their own ailments or physical condition
2. A person of weak or infirm constitution prone to illness ; someone obsessively worried about their health and medical state
3. An individual of delicate health suffering from chronic weakness ; someone excessively attentive to their bodily complaints and fitness

Etymology: "Valetudinarian" is a word that describes a person who is excessively preoccupied with their own health, and its ancestry is a neat piece of Latin wordplay on health itself. The Latin "valetudo" meant "state of health," built from "valere," to be strong or well, the same root that gives English "valiant" and "valid." Latin speakers also used it for sickness, so the word could describe either condition. The adjective "valetudinarius" in Latin was used of someone in poor or weak health, a sense that carried into English as "valetudinary." The form we use now, "valetudinarian," took on the sense of a person who fusses over imaginary or minor ailments, which is the opposite of what the Latin root suggests: someone who is perpetually unwell in their own mind rather than in their body. The English "-ary" and "-ous" endings came in through the Latin adjective, so the word reached English as a fully formed Latin borrowing.

Synonyms: sickly, infirm, frail, delicate, weak

Antonyms: healthy, robust, vigorous, strong, hardy