Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PLAGUE, n. [plāg; Sp. plaga or llaga, a wound, a plague; It. piaga for plaga; G. and Dan. plage; Sw. plåga; W. pla, plague; llac, a slap; llaciaw, to strike, to lick, to cudgel; Ir. plaig; L. plaga, a stroke, Gr. πληγη. See Lick and Lay. The primary sense is a stroke or striking. So afflict is from the root of flog, and probably of the same family as plague.]

1. Any thing troublesome or vexations; but in this sense, applied to the vexations we suffer from men, and not to the unavoidable evils inflicted on us by Divine Providence. The application of the word to the latter, would now be irreverent and reproachful.
2. A pestilential disease; an acute, malignant febrile disease that often prevails in Egypt, Syria and Turkey, and has at times prevailed in the large cities of Europe with frightful mortality.
3. A state of misery. – Ps. xxxviii.
4. Any great natural evil or calamity; as, the ten plagues of Egypt.