tertian

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   medical, especially of a fever: recurring every other day, or every third day by inclusive counting

   The physician recorded a tertian fever whose attacks returned at forty-eight-hour intervals.

2. 2
   noun

   a fever or ague with attacks recurring at tertian intervals

   The dog was reported to suffer from a tertian that returned on alternate days.

3. 3
   adj

   music: based on or constructed from intervals of a third

   The harmony is tertian, with each chord built by stacking thirds.

From Middle English tertian, after Latin tertiana in febris tertiana, 'fever of the third day,' from tertius, 'third.' Older medicine counted the day of one attack as day one, so a recurrence two days later was called third-day or tertian.

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