Well it came from an episode the 1950s radio show the Goon Show and it looks as though the phrase was made up by Spike Milligan. Some think that it is a corruption of the word “allergy” but this is not supported by the use of the hard ‘g’ in Lurgy (rhyming with Fergie), as allergy has a softer ‘g’ sound.

There is also a theory that it is based on the Northern English dialectic phrase “fever-lurgy” meaning lazy or idle, but no one seems to know for sure where the word came from, just that it was first heard in the Goon Show.

The episode in 1954 entitled ‘Lurgi Strikes Britain’ was about a highly infectious disease called the Dreaded Lurgi, one of the symptoms of which was an uncontrollable urge to shout ‘EEEEE-Yackaboo!’ without realising it. It turned out that the diseases was actually fictitious and a ruse invented by the criminals in order to sell brass band instruments.

The popularity of the show meant that the phrase ‘Dreaded Lurgy’ soon caught on and is now used as slang for any unspecified contagious disease