Calenture
Origin
From Middle French calenture, from Spanish calentura.
Full definition of calenture
Noun
calenture
(plural calentures)- A heat stroke or fever, often suffered in the tropics.
- 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, I:To returne: in changing so many parallels, the weather increast from warme to raging hot, the Sunne flaming all day, insomuch that Calentures begun to vexe us.
- 1719: Daniel Defoe, Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly that I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate.
- A delirium occurring from such symptoms, in which a stricken sailor pictures the sea as grassy meadows and wishes to dive overboard into them.