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Friday July 24, 2009

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febrile [FEB-ruhl; FEE-bruhl; -bryl]

adjective

1. Pertaining to fever; indicating fever, or derived from it; feverish.

• Mr. Schreiber, with a backwoods face and beefcake body, radiates a febrile, simmering fury in a performance of taut intensity.
  Charles Isherwood, "A High Freudian Love Triangle With Three Sharp Points", New York Times, Apr 28, 2009
• "We're especially concerned about people who traveled to Mexico or any of the five states (California, Texas, Ohio, Kansas and New York) where the illness has been identified seven days prior to onset of a febrile respiratory illness," she said.
  Mary Landers, "Local Public Health Vigilant on Swine Flu", Savannah Morning News, Apr 28, 2009
• Now we seemed to live in fiacres and restaurants, and the afternoons were filled with febrile impressions. Marshall had a friend in this street, and another in that.
  George Moore (1852 - 1933) An Irish novelist, short-story writer and poet. Confessions of a Young Man (1888)

Origin of the Word

Febrile, approximately 1651, derives from Medieval Latin febrilis "pertaining to fever," from Latin febris "a fever": fever.