Meanings
plural quartans
- historicalmedicineA fever whose symptoms recur every four days.
an Egyptian at Alexandria, whose quartan resisted the strongest applications of European physic, was effectually healed by the actual cautery, which a certain Arab Shaykh applied to the crown of his head.
1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 54
- not comparablemedicineRecurring every four days; especially in designating a form of malaria with such symptoms.
Pork, of all meats, is[…]naught for queasy stomachs, insomuch that frequent use of it may breed a quartan ague.
1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York: New York Review Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 218
Origin
- Latinquartāna
- Old Frenchquartaine
- Anglo-Normanquartaine
- Englishquartan
From 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”).
More words from Anglo-Norman, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with quartan
All rhymes →Cite this entry
quartan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quartan
“quartan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quartan. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quartan,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quartan.
Source: quartan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.