the.com/fever
your body torching itself to make the neighborhood too hot for invaders
means an abnormally high body temperature, usually a sign that the body is fighting off infection or illness.
from From Old English 'fefer' or 'feefor,' borrowed from Latin 'febris' (fever), a word the Romans may have linked to 'fervere,' to boil or glow with heat — so the very name carries the sense of a body running hot. The Latin root threads through the Romance languages too, surfacing in French 'fièvre' and Spanish 'fiebre.'
- defense
- Higher heat slows down many bacteria and viruses
- reptile proof
- Lizards seek warmth to fake a fever when sick
- normal limit
- Brain damage from fever itself is extremely rare
- history
- Doctors once injected malaria to fight syphilis
- word origin
- From Latin febris, meaning to be hot
dengue fever — affects 390 million people annually across tropical regions
rheumatic fever — causes permanent heart damage, peaks in children aged 5-15 in developing countries
scarlet fever — caused by group a streptococcus, historically killed thousands in 19th century london
yellow fever — killed 5,000+ in philadelphia 1793, now vaccine-preventable