yellow fever

yellow fever

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

yellow fever (uncountable)

1. An acute febrile illness of tropical regions, caused by a flavivirus (Yellow fever virus) and spread by certain mosquitoes, characterised by jaundice, black vomit and the absence of urination.
   • 2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), page 257:

     The town up the road was overcome by yellow fever, he said. All travelers warned away.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) black vomit, (obsolete) yellow jack, (obsolete) Bulam fever

2. (usually derogatory) A perceived sexual preference for ethnically East Asian women expressed by certain non-East Asian (especially Caucasian) men; racial fetishism towards East Asian women.

   Synonym: Asian fever

3. (dated) A lust for gold; an obsession with seeking gold ore.
   • 1910, Giacomo Puccini, La Fanciulla Del West: The Girl of the Golden West:

     He's got the yellow fever; Once get the sight of gold and you are poisoned.

   • 1951, George Peter Hammond, The Larkin Papers, Univ of California Press:

     An onze a day, two a day, or three—every one has the gold or yellow fever. Last night several of the most respectible American residents of this town arrived home from a visit to the gold regions.

   • 1963, Robert Raine Geyer, Death Trails in Bolivia to Faith Triumphant:

     But the true yellow fever that has abounded in the lower gold-bearing valleys around Guanay can possibly illustrate in sickness what takes place in actuality among the sons of men who are seduced by the lust for gold.

   • 2000 October 10, W. Jacobson, Dickens and the Children of Empire, Springer, →ISBN, page 68–69:

     In the stories he wrote and published about the gold rush, Dickens does not resolve characters' feelings of class resentment so much as explain them in non-political terms […] Dickens spreads this strain of 'yellow fever' among his characters, making their labour unrest seem both understandable and pathological.

   Synonym: gold fever

Derived terms

• yellow-fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti)

Translations

illness

Arabic: حَمَّى صَفْرَاء‎ f (ḥammā ṣafrāʾ) Breton: terzhienn-velen (br) f Chinese: Mandarin: 黃熱病／黄热病 (zh) (huángrèbìng) Danish: gul feber Dutch: gele koorts (nl) f Esperanto: flava febro Finnish: keltakuume (fi) French: fièvre jaune (fr) f Georgian: ყვითელი ციებ-ცხელება (q̇viteli cieb-cxeleba), ყვითელი ცხელება (q̇viteli cxeleba) German: Gelbfieber (de) n Hungarian: sárgaláz (hu) Irish: fiabhras buí n Japanese: 黄熱 (おうねつ, ōnetsu) Korean: 황열 (ko) (hwang'yeol) Polish: żółta febra (pl) f Portuguese: febre amarela (pt) f Romanian: friguri galbene (ro) n pl Russian: жёлтая лихора́дка f (žóltaja lixorádka), амарилле́з (ru) m (amarilléz) Scottish Gaelic: fiabhras-buidhe m Spanish: fiebre amarilla (es) f Swahili: homa ya manjano Swedish: gul feber c, gula febern c Thai: ไข้เหลือง (th) (kâi-lʉ̌ʉang) Turkish: sarıhumma (tr) Ukrainian: жо́вта гаря́чка f (žóvta harjáčka) Vietnamese: sốt vàng, sốt vàng da Yoruba: ibà pọ́njú-pọ́ntọ̀ Yucatec Maya: xekik

slang: attraction

See also

• jungle fever

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2023), “yellow fever n.”, in Green's Dictionary of Slang