Etymologically
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fever

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 09:16. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfiːvə/ (UK); /ˈfivɚ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English fēfor, fēfer, borrowed from Latin febris (“fever”),[2][3][4][5] reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman fevre, Old French fievre.[4][6][7] The Latin word is related to fovēre (“to warm”),[2][3][5] perhaps from PIE Proto-Indo-European *dhegh- (“to burn”).[3] It was taken into most Germanic languages, as German Fieber.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A disease marked by high body temperature: about 1000 in Barnhart and the OED.[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Old English also had hriþ for fever,[3] and the verb feferian.[3] Intense nervous excitement or agitation, as a fever of impatience, is from 1586, the 1580s in Etymonline.[8][3] Fever ague (1338) translated Old French fievre ague, acute fever.[8] Feverish meant causing fever before 1398 and excited, restless from 1634, in Milton.[2] The verb, to throw into a fever, is from 1606 in MWU.[5] Word Origins notes that the plant feverfew was a traditional cure, from Latin febrifugia.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – a fever.[2][8]
  • 1338 – fever ague.[8]
  • 1586 – intense excitement.[8]
  • 1634 – feverish, restless.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An abnormally high body temperature, usually with shivering and headache.
  2. Any of various diseases marked by fever: yellow fever.
  3. A state of nervous excitement or agitation: a fever of anticipation.

Word family

  • feverless
  • feverweed
  • enfever
  • feverish
  • feverous
  • feverroot
  • feverwort
  • brain fever
  • fever blister
  • fever pitch
  • fever therapy
  • fever tree
  • fever twig
  • febrile
  • fervent
  • fervid
  • fervor
  • feverfew

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press