quartan
UK /ˈkwɔːtən/ · US /ˈkwɔɹtən/ noun, adjective
Forms quartans
- noun (medicine, historical) A fever whose symptoms recur every four days.
- adjective (medicine) Recurring every four days; especially in designating a form of malaria with such symptoms.
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman quartaine, Old French quartaine, from Latin quartāna (short for febris quartana), noun use of feminine form of quartānus (“recurring every four days”), from quartus (“fourth”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Of or pertaining to the fourth; occurring every fourth day, reckoning inclusively; as, a quartan ague, or fever.
- noun An intermittent fever which returns every fourth day, reckoning inclusively, that is, one in which the interval between paroxysms is two days.
- noun A measure, the fourth part of some other measure.
Etymology [F. quartain, in fièvre quartaine, L. quartanus, fr. quartus the fourth. See Quart.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “quartan”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details