I am fascinated by the word Courbature- at the moment it comes up constantly in ads on the TV here in France, it is, it appears a symptom of ‘flu.

The best dictionary translation seems to be ache- but this is complicated by by the same word also referring to a disease in horses.

The Good Larousse gives a short etymology saying it is a joining of court (short) and battu (beaten) which would ( to me) indicate feeling like one had been briefly beaten- good description for the aches you get at the onset of ‘flu- but somehow- it doesn’t convince.