distress vs malady

distress

noun
  • Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature. 

  • A cause of such discomfort. 

  • The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction. 

  • Serious danger. 

  • A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt. 

  • An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt. 

verb
  • To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age. 

  • To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain. 

  • To cause strain or anxiety to someone. 

malady

noun
  • Any ailment or disease of the body; especially, a lingering or deep-seated disorder. 

  • A moral or mental defect or disorder. 

How often have the words distress and malady occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )