Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Occurring every fourth day, counting inclusively, or every 72 hours. Used of a fever.
  • noun A malarial fever recurring every 72 hours.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having to do with the fourth; especially, occurring every fourth day: as, a quartan ague or fever (one which recurs on the fourth day—that is, after three days).
  • noun An intermitting ague that occurs every fourth day, both days of consecutive occurrence being counted, as on Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday, etc.
  • noun A measure containing the fourth part of some other measure.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the fourth; occurring every fourth day, reckoning inclusively.
  • noun (Med.) An intermittent fever which returns every fourth day, reckoning inclusively, that is, one in which the interval between paroxysms is two days.
  • noun A measure, the fourth part of some other measure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine, historical A fever whose symptoms recur every four days.
  • adjective medicine Recurring every four days; especially in designating a form of malaria with such symptoms.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a malarial fever that recurs every fourth day
  • adjective occurring every fourth day (especially the fever and weakness of malaria)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English quartaine, from Old French, from Latin quārtāna, from quārtānus, of the fourth, from quārtus, fourth; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Anglo-Norman quartaine, Old French quartaine, from Latin quartāna (short for febris quartana), noun use of feminine form of quartānus ("recurring every four days"), from quartus ("fourth").

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Examples

  • Antonio de Ciudad Real happily notes the day, in Tratado curioso, when he realized that he was finally free from quartan fever (cuartanas), which had plagued him for more than three years. 64 Intermittent fevers like these were probably malarial, and these two cases could very well have originated in Spain, as their carriers had only recently arrived from the Peninsula.

    Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

  • He admitted to having been laid low by a quartan ague but insisted it was nothing to worry about.

    Secrets of the Tudor Court Kate Emerson 2010

  • He admitted to having been laid low by a quartan ague but insisted it was nothing to worry about.

    Secrets of the Tudor Court Kate Emerson 2010

  • He admitted to having been laid low by a quartan ague but insisted it was nothing to worry about.

    Secrets of the Tudor Court Kate Emerson 2010

  • He admitted to having been laid low by a quartan ague but insisted it was nothing to worry about.

    Secrets of the Tudor Court Kate Emerson 2010

  • In contrast, the incubation period for quartan malaria, caused by Plasmodium malariae, can be as long as thirty or forty days, with fever coming every fourth day.

    Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

  • Classically, but infrequently observed, the attacks occur every second day with the "tertian" parasites (P. falciparum, P. vivax, and P. ovale) and every third day with the "quartan" parasite (P. malariae).

    Malaria 2008

  • Such a deposit may be expected, when the fever is of a continual type, and that it will pass into a quartan, if it become intermittent, and its paroxysms come on in an irregular manner, and if in this form it approach autumn.

    The Book Of Prognostics 2007

  • This disease is habitual to them both in summer and in winter, and in addition they are very subject to dropsies of a most fatal character; and in summer dysenteries, diarrheas, and protracted quartan fevers frequently seize them, and these diseases when prolonged dispose such constitutions to dropsies, and thus prove fatal.

    On Airs, Waters, And Places 2007

  • If it be within the [1075] body, and not putrified, it causeth black jaundice; if putrified, a quartan ague; if it break out to the skin, leprosy; if to parts, several maladies, as scurvy, &c.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

Comments

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  • Usage in phrase quartan ague; see usage note on sequelae.

    February 24, 2008

  • "Many of the sick from the inshore vessels were now aboard... with fevers of one kind or another—tertians, double tertians, remittents and quartans for the most part, though there were three cases of the yellow jack..."

    --P. O'Brian, The Commodore, 242

    March 18, 2008

  • (n): of or pertaining to the fourth of any series.

    January 16, 2009