dandy fever
- noun
- /ˈdændi ˈfiːvər/
- Archaic
:
fiebre del dengue
- Early tropical medicine texts often used the term dandy fever for what is now called dengue fever.
Examples
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Joint pain and skin rashes are common symptoms of dandy fever.
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The region reported several cases of dandy fever after the rainy season began.
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He was diagnosed with dandy fever last week.
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The doctor explained that dandy fever can cause severe headaches.
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Joint pain and skin rashes are common symptoms of dandy fever.
-
The region reported several cases of dandy fever after the rainy season began.
-
The doctor explained that dandy fever can cause severe headaches.
Synonyms
7
5.8
A tropical disease carried by mosquitoes that causes fever, rash, and very bad pain in the head and joints
4
4.0
A disease in hot countries spread by mosquitoes that causes fever, rash and severe head and joint pain
A tropical disease spread by mosquitoes that causes high fever, rash and very bad joint and muscle pain
Surface Forms
Morphology
dandy + fever
Knowing 'fever' gives a general sense of illness, but the constituent 'dandy' is not transparently related to a mosquito-borne disease (and here is even listed as not found in the dictionary). The specific disease meaning (dengue fever) cannot be derived from the parts and would be unpredictable to a B1 learner, so prior exposure or lexical knowledge is required.
Etymology
Dandy fever may come from the Caribbean word 'dengue', which English ears heard as dandy. One popular story says people with the illness moved stiffly and had sore joints, like an affected 'dandy', so the image of a stiff dandy helped the name stick for the fever that causes joint pain.