Agued

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Being afflicted with a disease that causes cyclical fever and chills Experiencing intermittent symptoms including shaking and fluctuating temperature often associated with illness Suffering from health conditions that induce recurring bouts of fever along with shaking chills
2. Affected by a recurring fever characterized by chills and shivering fits
3. Enduring episodes of fever that cause trembling and alternating hot and cold sensations

Etymology: The word is a past form of "ague", so the more interesting story belongs to that noun. Ague began as a shortened name for a fever: Late Latin speakers called it "febris acuta", literally "sharp fever", because the illness came on quickly and severely. The Latin adjective "acutus" meant "sharp" or "acute", the same root that gives English "acute" and a close relative of "acute" (the two words are doublets, having split apart as they came into English by different routes). Middle French took up the phrase as "fievre aguë", and English borrowed the shortened form in the Middle English period. The name's sharpness was medical rather than metaphorical: the fever arrived with violent chills, then fever, then sweating, in recurring fits. So "agued" describes someone who has been struck by that cycle, with the adjective formed from the noun in the usual English way.

Synonyms: fevered, ill, sick