noun
chronic illness; persistent disease
Medical term for a long-standing or recurrent disease. Rare in everyday language; more commonly expressed as 持病 or 慢性疾患 in modern Japanese.
旧痾が再発し、再び入院することになった。
His chronic illness recurred, and he had to be hospitalized again.
Composed of 旧 (old, former) or 久 (long time) and 痾 (chronic illness). The exact historical derivation is uncertain; the spelling is conventionally associated with the meaning of a persistent disease.