ague

See also: agüe and agüé

English

Etymology

From Middle English agu, ague, borrowed from Middle French (fievre) aguë, “acute (fever)” (Modern French fièvre aiguë), from Late Latin (febris) acuta (“acute fever”), from Latin acūtus (“sharp, acute”) febris (“fever”).

Doublet of acute.

Pronunciation

• enPR: āʹgyo͞o, IPA^(key): /ˈeɪ.ɡju/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

ague (countable and uncountable, plural agues)

1. (obsolete) An acute fever.
2. (pathology) An intermittent fever, attended by alternate cold and hot fits.
   • a. 1969, John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, Penguin, published 1981, →ISBN, page 163:

     He had to capture some character and get out of that rest room before his ague got so bad that the sergeant had to carry him to and from the booth every day.

   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC:

     He shivered all the while so violently, that it was quite as much as he could do to keep the neck of the bottle between his teeth, without biting it off.
     “I think you have got the ague,” said I.
     “I’m much of your opinion, boy,” said he.
     “It’s bad about here,” I told him. “You’ve been lying out on the meshes, and they’re dreadful aguish. Rheumatic too.”

   • 1852, Susanna Moodie, Roughing it in the Bush: or, Forest Life in Canada:

     Ague and lake fever had attacked our new settlement. The men in the shanty were all down with it, and my husband was confined to his bed on each alternate day, unable to raise hand or foot, and raving in the delirium of the fever.

   • 1810, Lord Byron, Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos:

     ’Twere hard to say who fared the best:
     Sad mortals! thus the Gods still plague you!
     He lost his labour, I my jest:
     For he was drowned, and I’ve the ague

3. The cold fit or rigor of an intermittent fever.

   fever and ague

4. A chill, or state of shaking, as with cold.
   • November 23, 1698, John Dryden, letter to Mrs Stewart

     I ’scap’d with one cold fit of an ague

5. (obsolete) Malaria.
   • 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred:

     Where I’m from, people have learned that mosquitoes carry ague.

Usage notes

The pronunciation /ˈeɪɡ/ is a common pronunciation by people to whom this is a book word (a word one learns by reading and has never heard spoken). /ˈeɪ.ɡju/ is the standard pronunciation.

Derived terms

• ague cake
• aguelike
• agueproof
• ague tree
• agueweed
• aguey
• aguish
• buck ague
• Covent Garden ague
• duck ague
• dumb ague
• face ague
• fever and ague

 

Related terms

• acute

Translations

intermittent fever, attended by alternate cold and hot fits

• Bulgarian: треска (bg) (treska)
• Dutch: koorts (nl)
• Finnish: sahaava kuume
• French: fièvre (fr) f
• German: Schüttelfrost (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἠπίαλος m (ēpíalos)

• Ingrian: veritauti
• Maori: kinawhea, kunawhea
• Polish: febra (pl) f
• Russian: лихора́дка (ru) f (lixorádka)
• Spanish: fiebre intermitente f
• Ukrainian: лихома́нка f (lyxománka), пропа́сниця (uk) f (propásnycja), тря́сця f (trjáscja)

chill, or state of shaking, as with cold

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 寒戰／寒战 (zh) (hánzhàn)

• Finnish: palelu, horkka (fi)
• German: Schüttelfrost (de) m
• Greek: ρίγη (el) n pl (rígi)
• Ingrian: veritauti
• Japanese: 寒気 (ja) (さむけ, samuke), 悪寒 (ja) (おかん, okan)
• Maori: kunāwhea
• Russian: озно́б (ru) m (oznób)
• Spanish: escalofrío (es) m
• Ukrainian: озноб (uk) m (oznob), остуда f (ostuda)

malaria — see malaria

See also

• fainaigue

Verb

ague (third-person singular simple present agues, present participle aguing, simple past and past participle agued)

1. (transitive) To strike with an ague, or with a cold fit.

Translations

to strike with an ague, or with a cold fit

• Russian: лихора́дка (ru) (lixorádka)

Anagrams

• gaue

Mbyá Guaraní

Noun

ague

1. feather
2. fur

Possessed forms

    Possessed forms of ague

singular			plural
1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st person inclusive	1st person exclusive	2nd person	3rd person
xerague	nderague	hague	nhanderague	orerague	penderague	hague

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐˈɡu.ɨ/ [ɐˈɣu.ɨ]

Verb

ague

1. inflection of aguar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English agu, ague, from Middle French (fievre) aguë (“acute (fever)”). Cognate with English ague.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈɡ(j)u/, /eˈɡ(j)u/

Noun

ague (plural agues)

1. ague (acute fever)

References

• Eagle, Andy, editor (2024), “ague”, in The Online Scots Dictionary‎^[1]