fever [OE] Fever has been with us since Anglo-Saxon times, when we borrowed the word from Latin febris. A fever makes you hot and bothered, and the word may ultimately go back to a root meaning ‘to be restless’. In herbal medicine the plant feverfew [OE] was traditionally seen as a cure for fever. In Latin the name was febrifugia, from febris ‘fever’ and fugare ‘drive away’, from which we get the medical term febrifuge [L17th] for a drug that reduces fever. Closely related to fugare is fugere ‘to flee’ found in fugitive [LME], refuge [LME], and refugee [E17th].