A fever is a higher-than-normal body temperature, usually caused by illness. It can also mean a state of great excitement or nervous energy.
It comes from Old English “fefor,” from Latin “febris,” meaning “fever.” The word has long been used both for physical heat and for emotional or social “heat.”
We use “fever” for both sickness and excitement—like “World Cup fever”—as if crowds can catch emotional heat. A slight fever is actually your body’s defense system turning up the heat to make life harder for invading germs.
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