tertian

[tur-shuhn]

adjective

1. Pathology.,  (of a malarial fever, etc.) characterized by paroxysms that recur every other day.

noun

1. Pathology.,  a tertian fever.

2. a Jesuit during the period of tertianship.

tertian

/ ˈtɜːʃən /

adjective

1. (of a fever or the symptoms of a disease, esp malaria) occurring every other day

noun

1. a tertian fever or symptoms

Other Word Forms

• subtertian adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tertian¹

1325–75; Middle English terciane < Latin ( febris ) tertiāna tertian (fever), equivalent to terti ( us ) third + -āna, feminine of -ānus -an

Word History and Origins

Origin of tertian¹

C14: from Latin febris tertiāna fever occurring every third day, reckoned inclusively, from tertius third

Example Sentences

It therefore furnishes the basis of classification of simple intermittents into the following forms: quotidian, tertian, and quartan.

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A certain Person, who purposely sunned himself for a considerable Time, in the clear Day of an intermitting tertian Fever, underwent the Assault of an Apoplexy, which carried him off the following Day.

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A man about forty years old had in the spring a tertian fever, for which he took too small a quantity of bark, so that the returns of it were weakened without being removed.

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Cures.—Intermittent fever, quotidian and tertian fever; sore throat, quinsy—had very good effect.

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Two, the so-called benign fevers, are intermittent; namely, tertian and quartan fever, in which the fever recurs every second and third day respectively.

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