cold or colds

「風邪を引く」の表現にはふつう単数形が使われます。

しかし、果たしてcoldは複数にならないかというと、いろいろな種類の風邪があるわけですから、普通名詞としての一般的な総称として複数形が用いられます。ちょうどI don’t like apples.のように。

I am prone to / susceptible to colds.
私は風邪をひきやすい。

I seldom caught colds when I was a child.
子供のころほとんど風邪を引いたことがなかった。

Idiots cannot catch colds.

catch cold とcatch a coldは違うという人も、同じだと言う人もいます。

違うという人はcatch coldは「冷える」という意味で、それがもとでcatch a cold「風邪を引く」に至るのだと説明します。

catch (a) cold

「寒さで死ぬ」は、die of/from coldです。ある特定の場所でのある特定の寒さであったら、die of / from the coldです。

A lot of people died of cold in that year.
寒さで

A lot of people died of the cold in that year.
あの、例の寒さで

Idiots Cannot Catch Colds

Subordinate: Hey boss, if you're trying to infiltrate a hospital, you should just go in as a patient!
Bang: That's an excellent idea, but I've never been sick. I don't even know how to get sick...

A common superstition in Japanese culture: stupid people are immune to colds.
When invoked, may lead to a Delayed Reaction of "did you just call me an idiot?"
This has an equivalent in French, where Coryza is commonly known as "Rhume de cerveau" (brain cold), which people without a brain obviously can't catch. The English phrase "too slow to catch a cold" may or may not be related. If there is any Real Life explanation, it may be that idiots are too stupid to realize they even have a cold, then ignore it until it goes away. Another possible explanation; only an idiot would do the things that Japanese conventional wisdom says cause colds; when they don't catch the cold they should have, it's because they're idiots.
(http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotsCannotCatchColds)

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