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Podcast: Word of the Day
Episode: Calenture
Description: Calenture is a noun that refers to a fever or illness brought on by heat.
The Latin word calere means ‘be warm.’ By the late 16th century, our word of the day had begun being employed to describe a fever often caught by sailors in the tropics. More recently, it’s been used to describe any kind of feverish delirium caused by heated temperatures. Example:
After one week, the Bahamas, I found myself suffering from calenture. I was so delirious I nearly passed up a fried fish sandwich — something I would never do in my right min