From Latin 'febris,' from PIE *dʰegʷʰ- (to burn) — the same root gave us 'day,' making fever and daylight two kinds of heat.
Definition
An abnormally high body temperature, usually accompanying illness.
The Full Story
Latinbefore 1000 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish 'fefor,' borrowed from Latin 'febris' (fever), possibly from PIE *dhegwh- (to burn, warm), though the connection is uncertain and some linguists consider 'febris' to have no clear Indo-European etymology. The Latin wordmay instead be connected to 'fovere' (to warm, cherish), from PIE *dhgwhey-. In ancientmedicine, fever was not considered a symptom but a disease in its own right — Galen classified fevers into types (ephemeral, putrid, hectic) based on humoral theory, a system that dominated
Did you know?
'Fever' and 'day' share thesame PIE root *dʰegʷʰ- (to burn). A fever is the body's burning; a day is the sky's burning. Both were named for heat and light — one internal, one external. The medical term 'febrile' preserves the Latin form more transparently.
French 'fievre'). The word generated compounds: 'hay fever' (1829, named for its association with haying season), 'scarlet fever,' 'yellow fever,' 'gold fever,' and 'fever pitch.' The figurative sense of intense excitement ('election fever,' 'disco fever') dates from the 17th century. Related Latin derivatives in English include 'febrile' (feverish), 'febrifuge' (fever-reducing medicine), and 'February' — the month of the Roman purification festival Februa, from 'februum' (purification), possibly connected to fever through the association of heat with ritual cleansing. Key roots: *dʰegʷʰ- (Proto-Indo-European: "to burn, to be warm").