calenture

American  

[kal-uhn-cher, -choor] / ˈkæl ən tʃər, -ˌtʃʊər /

noun

1. Pathology. a violent fever with delirium, affecting persons in the tropics.

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calenture British  

/ ˈkælənˌtjʊə /

noun

1. a mild fever of tropical climates, similar in its symptoms to sunstroke

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Other Word Forms

• calentural
  adjective
• calenturish
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of calenture

1585–95; earlier calentura < Spanish: fever, equivalent to calent ( ar ) to heat (< Latin calent-, stem of calēns, present participle of calēre to be hot) + -ura -ure

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

calenture

Sweetheart, I can write unto you but with a weak hand, for I have suffered the most violent calenture for fifteen days that ever man did and lived.

From Great Ralegh by Hugh de Selincourt

That the man who had promised to marry her, had exhausted the vocabulary of love for her, should thus cast her off, struck her into a frantic calenture which, for a season, threatened her existence.

From The Spinners by Eden Phillpotts

Might he not urge in his excuse, to cloak him from his own and the world's contempt, some unsuspected calenture, for which, had he known, he ought to have taken medical advice?

From Our Friend the Charlatan by George Gissing

This day likewise, I had a stroke of the sun, which occasioned a burning fever or calenture.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Robert Kerr

And for that lethargy was there no cure, But to be cast into a calenture?

From Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham by Sir John Denham

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Related Words

• force
• heat
• light

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