[f. Gr. θέρμη heat + ANTIDOTE.] An antidote to heat.
1. A rotating fan fixed in a window-opening and incased in wet tatties, used in India to drive in a current of cooled air. (Introduced in 1831.)
‘[It] is in fact a winnowing machine fitted to a window aperture’ (Yule).
1840. W. G. Osborne, Crt. & Camp Runjeet Sing, 132. The thermometer at 112 all day in our tents, notwithstanding tatties, thermantidotes, and every possible invention … to lessen the stifling heat.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xii. 214. Rooms should be kept dark during the day, and cooled by means of punkahs, thermantidotes, tatties.
2. Med. A cooling medicine. rare–0.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Thermantidotum, term for a medicine…: a thermantidote.
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., Thermantidote, a remedy against excessive heat or fever.
