▪ I. tic
(tɪk)
[a. F. tic, first known as the name of an equine affection: ticq, tiquet ‘a disease which on a sudden stopping a horse's breath, makes him to stop, and stand still’ (Cotgr. 1611). Origin uncertain; Diez compares It. ticchio whim, freak, caprice. See also tick n.5]
1. A disease or affection characterized by spasmodic twitching of certain muscles, esp. of the face; nearly always short for tic douloureux: see 2.
| 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 219 The word tic is commonly supposed to be an onomatopy, or a sound expressive of the action it imports. 1849 R. T. Claridge Cold Water-cure 106 A person..suffering from Tic in his legs. 1860 Dickens Lett. 5 June, Smith..has been dreadfully ill with tic. 1873 Stevenson Lett. (1901) I. 62, I do not expect any tic to-night. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 868 Both in this country and in America, the term ‘tic’ has been applied to..facial spasm (‘tic non-douloureux’), or to facial neuralgia (‘tic douloureux’). Ibid. VIII. 40 A phenomenon in the symptomatology of simple tic (habit-spasm). |
‖ 2. tic douloureux (dulur{obar}) [F., = painful twitching], severe facial neuralgia with twitching of the facial muscles.
(Often misspelt by English writers dolo-, dolou-, douleu-, and often mispronounced (dɒləruː), etc.)
| 1800 Med. Jrnl. III. 575 The Dolor Faciei, or, as the French call it, Tic Douloreux, is a disorder which has, in general, frustrated all attempts of the medical art. 1800 Home in Phil. Trans. XCI. 20 The Tic douleureux is a remarkable instance. 1822 Good Study Med. I. 55 The maddening pain of neuralgia faciei, or tic douloureux. 1824 Lamb Lett., To B. Barton (1838) II. 162, I hope..thy tick doleru, or, however you spell it, is vanished. 1861 Lytton Str. Story I. 58 A poor old gentleman, tormented by tic⁓doloreux. 1878 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. I. 289 The disease known as ‘tic-douloureux’ is an affection of the fifth nerve and its branches, but any nerve in the body is liable to suffer. |
3. A whim: = tick n.5 2.
| 1896 Daily News 30 Sept. 6/3 It is mere ‘tic’ or habit. 1927 F. M. Ford Let. 28 Mar. (1935) 172, I have such a tic against writing letters that I cannot do it. 1960 Twentieth Cent. Apr. 361 This is an irritating tic of the British Left, this substitution of moral gestures for practical policies. 1978 C. P. Snow Realists vi. 176 He had the tic, common to many writers, of insisting that the table be kept pernicketily tidy. |
▪ II. tic
variant of tig.