Describing a severe illness that causes bone pain, or a disease causing extreme skeletal pain; historically used to describe dengue fever.
From 'break' (Old English 'brecan') plus 'bone' (Old English 'ban'). Used as a medical descriptor for illnesses featuring sharp bone pain, particularly dengue fever.
Before modern medicine named diseases scientifically, people described them by symptoms—'breakbone fever' shows how terrified patients were of dengue's intense skeletal pain, which made them feel their bones would shatter.
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