remittent · adj — alternately increasing and decreasing in severity or intensity. It carries an Arena rating of 1640, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, remittent ranks #1,072 of 17,205 for The Improbable, #2,171 of 17,151 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,180 of 17,176 for Most Incisive Words, #4,511 of 17,163 for Most Sublime Words.
Why “remittent” is a great word
A fever that abates in severity but never fully breaks, marked by a recurring cycle of decline and return. From Latin *remittent-*, stem of *remittēns*, present participle of *remittere* ("to send back, relax, abate"), from *re-* ("back") + *mittere* ("to send"), first attested in English in the 1690s. Unlike "intermittent" (which implies a clean cessation and restart) or "continuous" (which describes an unbroken line), "remittent" describes a weary oscillation, a tide that retreats only to a certain point before relentlessly returning. It is the flush that fades to a clammy pallor by afternoon, the false promise of a cool forehead at dusk, and the low, persistent thrum of illness that haunts the small hours—a patient and tormenting rhythm that teaches the body the cruel grammar of almost-recovery.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From Latin remittent-, present participle of remittō.
adj
- Alternately increasing and decreasing in severity or intensity.e.g.“A remittent fever is when at certain periods the fever is more violent than at others, but the patient never intirely free from it.” — 1761, Hugh Smith, The Family Physician, London, p. 3, footnote:
- Of or pertaining to remission of the severity of symptoms.e.g.“[…] the long, long fever of life, which with him never knew a remittent moment, had robbed him of that which every man has a right to expect, some pleasure in the course of his existence.” — 1875, Charlotte Riddell, chapter 14, in The Uninhabited House:
noun
- A remittent fever.e.g.“If you would have died from fever, you would have died at Ujiji when you had that severe attack of remittent.” — 1872, Henry Morton Stanley, chapter 15, in How I Found Livingstone, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, page 598:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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