tertian

American  

[tur-shuhn] / ˈtɜr ʃən /

adjective

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

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noun

1. Pathology. a tertian fever.

2. a Jesuit during the period of tertianship.

tertian British  

/ ˈtɜːʃən /

adjective

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

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noun

1. a tertian fever or symptoms

Other Word Forms

• subtertian adjective

Etymology

Origin of tertian

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

Example Sentences

Influenza, tertian fever, leprosy were all endemic, along with tapeworm and a mysterious intestinal infestation that made its victim long to eat earth.

From Time Magazine Archive

Last week he died of tertian malaria, nephritis and influenza, was buried on a hilltop in Addis Ababa.

From Time Magazine Archive

A total of 213 cases was reported; of those, only six were of the "benign tertian" or vivax type.

From Time Magazine Archive

Like quinine, it does not kill sexual forms of malignant tertian malaria.

From Time Magazine Archive

My wife had another attack of the rigor and fever yesterday, and Wilson apprehends some tertian character has inserted itself into the former illness.

From Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. II by Downey, Edmund