What Does ‘Cabin Fever’ Mean? Plus Other ‘Fever’ Words

We come to you in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. One of the symptoms of COVID-19 is a fever, and that got us thinking about the word “fever” and the different phrases that use it. 

After a bit of noodling around, here’s what we learned.

The Origin of the Word ‘Fever’

The word “fever” comes from the classical Latin “febris.” It’s also related to the Latin word “fovēre,” meaning “to heat,” and the ancient Greek “τέϕρα” (pronounced “tephra”), meaning “ash.”

'Fever' originally related to heat.

The first time it was printed was in an Old English herbarium — a book describing how to use herbs as medicine. The author said that people who have a “fefer” should “wyrte wel drincan on wætere” — that is, drink lots of water brewed with plants from the wort family, like spiderwort or St. John’s wort.  

The Meaning of ‘Fever’ Gets Extended

By the 1300s, we see the use of the word expand. It starts to also mean a state of nervous excitement or agitation. We see phrases like “a fever of jealousy” and “a fever of the soul.” We still use that meaning today — you’ll know that if you’ve ever had “a fever for the flavor of a  Pringle.” (For those of you too young to recognize that jingle, it’s from an iconic 1980s ad for those flattened, processed potato chips known as Pringles.)

Later, 'fever' related to excitement or agitation.

“Fever” also paired up with various modifiers over time. These phrases referred to an intense enthusiasm that usually burned out quickly.

For example, in the 1600s, “tulip fever” broke out in the Netherlands. These bulbs began to be imported from the Ottoman Empire, and prices for them skyrocketed. 

In the 1760s, when the Seven Years’ War raged between Great Britain and France, British fanatics were said to have “war-fever.” 

In 1848, the discovery of gold in California sparked a “gold fever” — a mass migration of miners into California’s goldfields. By 1855, more than 300,000 people had moved into the state.

And of course, in the 1970s, many of us had the most embarrassing fever of all — disco fever. Admit it — many of you probably wore gold lame and bell-bottoms, and danced your heart out to songs like “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees and “...

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