quartan

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English

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Etymology

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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).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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quartan (plural quartans)

  1. (medicine, historical) A fever whose symptoms recur every four days.
    • 1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 54:
      an Egyptian at Alexandria, whose quartan resisted the strongest applications of European physic, was effectually healed by the actual cautery, which a certain Arab Shaykh applied to the crown of his head.

Adjective

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quartan (not comparable)

  1. (medicine) Recurring every four days; especially in designating a form of malaria with such symptoms.

Coordinate terms

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Further reading

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