quartan

American  

[kwawr-tn] / ˈkwɔr tn /

adjective

1. (of a fever, ague, etc.) characterized by paroxysms that recur every fourth day, both days of consecutive occurrence being counted.

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noun

1. a quartan fever or ague.

2. quartan malaria.

quartan British  

/ ˈkwɔːtən /

adjective

1. (esp of a malarial fever) occurring every third day

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Etymology

Origin of quartan

1250–1300; Middle English quartaine < Old French < Latin ( febris ) quartāna quartan (fever), feminine of quartānus, equivalent to quart ( us ) fourth + -ānus -an

Example Sentences

The malaria was the quartan type and gave the Saint a chill every four days during the last twelve years of his life.

From Time Magazine Archive

The second is accompanied with a tumid viscus; and the last has generally, I believe, the quartan type, and is attended with some degree of arterial debility.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

Her fountains ministered to bodily ailments—Vapours, Winds, Gouts, Quinsies, Consumptions, Fevers quartan and tertian—without pretending to the power of love-philtres or the sparkle of the Castalian Spring.

From The Passionate Elopement by MacKenzie, Compton

Bishop Roger the same year, according to one chronicler, "by the kindness of death, escaped the quartan ague which had long afflicted him, and died broken-hearted."

From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum by White, Gleeson

The three most common species are vivax, malariæ and falciparum, causing respectively the tertian, quartan and remittent fevers.

From Insects and Diseases A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread or Cause some of our Common Diseases by Doane, Rennie Wilbur