quartan

English

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”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkwɔːtən/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkwɔɹtən/

Noun

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

quartan (not comparable)

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

Coordinate terms

Further reading

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