remittent

English

Etymology

From Latin remittent-, present participle of remittō.

Adjective

remittent (comparative more remittent, superlative most remittent)

1. Alternately increasing and decreasing in severity or intensity.
   • 1761, Hugh Smith, The Family Physician‎, London, p. 3, footnote:

     A remittent fever is when at certain periods the fever is more violent than at others, but the patient never intirely free from it.

   • 1791, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson‎, volume 1, London: Charles Dilly, page 176:

     Yet nine years elapsed before it [the dictionary] saw the light. His throes in bringing it forth had been severe and remittent, and at last we may almost conclude that the Caesarian operation was performed by the knife of Churchill, whose upbraiding satire, I dare say, made Johnson’s friends urge him to dispatch.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 21, in Jane Eyre‎:

     I bethought myself to go upstairs and see how the dying woman sped, who lay there almost unheeded: the very servants paid her but a remittent attention: the hired nurse, being little looked after, would slip out of the room whenever she could.

   • 1893, Lew Wallace, The Prince of India, or Why Constantinople Fell‎, New York: Harper, Volume 2, Book 6, Chapter 9, p. 404:

     The noise of the conflict, the shouting and roar of an uncounted multitude of men in the heat and fury of combat, not to more than mention the evidences of the conflict—arrows, bolts, and stones in overflight and falling in remittent showers—would have dispersed them in ordinary mood; but they were under protection—the Madonna was leading them—to be afraid was to deny her saving grace.

   • 1895, Arthur Machen, “Adventure of the Missing Brother”, in The Three Impostors‎, London: John Lane, page 97:

     The evening was a little chilly, and a fire of logs had been lighted in the study where we were, and the remittent flame and the glow on the walls reminded me of the old days.

2. (rare) Of or pertaining to remission of the severity of symptoms.
   • 1875, Charlotte Riddell, chapter 14, in The Uninhabited House‎:

     […] 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.

Usage notes

Something that is intermittent stops and starts again, whereas something that is remittent is continuous but varies in intensity.

Derived terms

• remittent fever

Noun

remittent (uncountable)

1. A remittent fever.
   • 1872, Henry Morton Stanley, chapter 15, in How I Found Livingstone‎, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, page 598:

     If you would have died from fever, you would have died at Ujiji when you had that severe attack of remittent.

Latin

Verb

remittent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of remittō