FEBRILE

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FEBRILE

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:30 pm

• febrile •

Pronunciation: fe-brêl, fee-brêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Feverish, having a fever. 2. Agitated, overactive, passionate, feverish.

Notes: The medical world has provided us with a plethora of words based on the root of today's Good Word, febr-. The noun indicating a febrile state is febrility. Something that causes fever is febrifacient, while a febrifugal medication is one that chases fever away. February comes from the Latin februarius mensis "month of purification", from februum "purification". Although most etymologists are hesitant to draw a parallel with febris, purification by fire is not uncommon around the world.

In Play: You will encounter this word most frequently in medical contexts: "The patient was brought to the hospital in a febrile condition," which is to say, with a fever. Of course, we will be able to find situations outside the hospital where this word fits in its figurative sense: "Percival finally broke through the writer's block in one night of febrile writing in which he completed the book."

Word History: Today's word comes from Latin febrilis, the adjective for febris "fever". Febris goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root bherv- "boil, bubble", which led to the English verb burn as well as the Scots English burn "spring, (bubbling) brook". This particular stem was subject to metathesis, the process by which the R switches places with the vowel before it. This led to such English words as bread, brew, and brown, not to mention the German word for "roast", braten. (Today's hot little Good Word comes from a suggestion by Norman Levin, to whom Dr. Goodword respectfully tips his hat.)
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:54 pm

An excellent word for the close of summer. Now that the students, especially those of college age, are back in the classroom, they'll have brought back many loverly viruses and odd sicknesses to share with their teachers and fellow students. Hack, hack.
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Postby Stargzer » Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:50 pm

An excellent word for the close of summer. Now that the students, especially those of college age, are back in the classroom, they'll have brought back many loverly viruses and odd sicknesses to share with their teachers and fellow students. Hack, hack.
College age? I never remember being sick in college. You've obviously never been married to a pre-school teacher!
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Postby Perry » Sun Sep 05, 2010 7:09 pm

An excellent word for the close of summer. Now that the students, especially those of college age, are back in the classroom, they'll have brought back many loverly viruses and odd sicknesses to share with their teachers and fellow students. Hack, hack.
College age? I never remember being sick in college. You've obviously never been married to a pre-school teacher!
But I have (and still am). Something is definitely making the rounds now, and did not leave her unscathed.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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