’Flu, noun

/fluː/
Forms:
Also Flu, and with small initial.
Origin:
Shortened form of English influenza.
historical, Pathology
The ’Flu, also the Big ’Flu, the Great ’Flu: the influenza epidemic which resulted in 140 000 deaths in South Africa during 1918 and 1919. Also attributive.
1964 J. Meintjes Manor House 24The doctor says it looks like a case of the great ’flu epidemic..when people died like flies and many were buried alive.
1979 E. Prov. Herald 2 Apr. 6In the old days, time..was reckoned as being before or after the Drought, the ’Flu or the Rinderpest.
1980 Daily Dispatch 30 May 3Mrs Booi was born on a farm near Alexandria ‘before the ’flu’, that is, before 1918.
1980 E. Joubert Long Journey of Poppie Nongena 12He died in the Big ’Flu of 1918. The isibetho..was the plague that the Lord sent us, the people were sick for three days and then they died.
1982 E. Prov. Herald 27 Sept. 13It was certainly before the Great Flu of 1918–19, because I can remember how my father..used to go around dosing the victims with brandy and paraffin.
The ’Flu, also the Big ’Flu, the Great ’Flu:the influenza epidemic which resulted in 140 000 deaths in South Africa during 1918 and 1919. Also attributive.
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floss, nounn.fluitjie, nounn.
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