calenture Meaning, Definition & Usage

Cal"en*ture noun
Etymology
F. calenture, fr. Sp. calenture heat, fever, fr. calentar to heat, fr. p. pr. of L. calere to be warm.
Definitions
  1. (Med.) A name formerly given to various fevers occuring in tropics; esp. to a form of furious delirium accompanied by fever, among sailors, which sometimes led the affected person to imagine the sea to be a green field, and to throw himself into it.
Cal"en*ture intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To see as in the delirium of one affected with calenture. Poetic
    Hath fed on pageants floating through the air Or calentures in depths of limpid flood. Wordsworth.

Webster 1913