So I was in an ask reddit thread about what bad advice you disagree with and I threw this one up. To my surprise I got a ton a replies that were just all over the place about where this quote comes from, the actual quote it came from and the intent behind the quote.
Everyone seemed to have a vastly different opinion on the history of this quote. So it got me curious. Does anyone know where this quote really came from originally?
As far as I know, it hasn't been traced back any earlier than John Withals' 1574 A shorte dictionarie for yonge begynners. Gathered of goods authors. English and Latin., which says "Fasting is a great remedie of feuer." (Quoted in Stuart Flexner's Wise Words and Wives' Tales).
Published 35 years later, one of Shakespeare's sonnets (147) incorporates that same idea, that someone with a fever who continues eating is "preserving the ill":
My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill
Also as far as I know, no one's tracked down what the original intent of this phrase was, but one theory is based on the etymological roots of the modern word "starve," which means to slowly die from lack of food, but the meaning of the word has become narrower over time. Its origin is the Middle English word sterven from the Old English word steorfan, which simply meant "to die." So while by 1574 the intent of the phrase seems to be that one should literally fast when one has a fever, it could be that the original phrase was something like "Feed a cold OR starve (die) of fever" (i.e. if you don't feed yourself when you have a cold it will develop into a fever and you'll die). I don't have a source on this theory except for dictionaries giving word origin. I've seen the theory several places (most recently all over your /r/askreddit comment), but (again, as far as I'm aware) since no one's found the phrase or similar occurring any earlier than 1574 - ultimately no one knows the answer to your question about the original intent of the phrase (if the phrase in fact existed prior to 1574).
Not a native English speaker, and I never heard the expression (that I can remember). Could you explain what it refers to/means? I'd be interested in seeing if I can find a corresponding advice.
A variation of this that exists is "Bleed a cold, starve a fever."
I decline to speculate on which came first, or what either version actually means, but it may help you cast a wider net in your research.