Occurring before or preventing a fever; relating to the period before fever develops.
From Latin 'ante' (before) + 'pyretic' (relating to fever, from Greek 'pyr' meaning fire). The term describes temporal or preventative relationship to fever.
Medieval physicians believed certain herbs and treatments had 'antepyretic' properties—meaning they could stop fevers before they started—which is why they so carefully dosed patients before symptoms appeared.
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