‖ vertigo
(ˈvɜːtɪgəʊ, vəˈtaɪgəʊ, vəˈtiːgəʊ)
Also 7 vertego, -teego, virtigo.
[L. vertīgo a turning or whirling round, giddiness, etc., f. vertĕre to turn. Cf. F. and Sp. vertigo; also F. vertige, Pg. vertigem, It. vertigine.
The various modes of pronouncing this word form the subject of an elaborate note by Walker (1797), arguing in favour of that with the stress on the first syllable. The fashionable pronunciation, however, appears to have been (vəˈtiːgəʊ), and this alone is given by Smart (1836–40) as really current, in spite of its divergence from English analogy.]
1. Path. A disordered condition in which the person affected has a sensation of whirling, either of external objects or of himself, and tends to lose equilibrium and consciousness; swimming in the head; giddiness, dizziness: a. Without article.
Sometimes applied to the staggers in horses or the sturdy in sheep, and in quot. 1619 to a disease of hawks.
| 1528 Paynell Salerne's Regim. C iij b, The heed ache called vertigo: whiche maketh a man to wene that the world turneth. 1558 W. Bullein Govt. Health A v, Apoplexia and Vertigo will neuer fro the[e] starte, Untill the vitall blode be killed in the harte. 1619 E. Bert Hawkes & Hawking iii. v. 85 A disease..of some called Vertego, it is a swimming of the braine. 1681 tr. Willis' Rem. Med. Wks. Vocab., Vertigo. 1766 Beattie Let. in Life & Writ. (1806) I. 93 Have I not headachs, like Pope? vertigo, like Swift? 1799 Med. Jrnl. II. 119 The most common effects observed from full doses, are vertigo, pain, or throbbing of the forehead. 1803 Ibid. X. 396 The general symptoms were pain across the forehead with vertigo. 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1872) 185 He felt as if attacked by vertigo, and his thoughts whirled in his brain. 1875 Richardson Dis. Mod. Life 72 In those who have irregular circulation through the brain, the tendency to giddiness and vertigo is more easily developed. |
b. With the.
| 1605 B. Jonson Volpone iii. vii, Our drinke..we will take, vntill my roofe whirle round With the vertigo. 1631 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlew. (1641) 316 What a circular gesture wee shall observe some use in their pace as if they were troubled with the vertigo. 1725 Fam. Dict. s.v., The Vertigo will sometimes seize upon those who look down from an high Place. 1794 E. Darwin Zoon. (1801) I. 335 Thus on turning round on one foot, the vertigo continues for some seconds of time after the person is fallen on the ground. 1827 Scott Let. in Lockhart (1838) VII. 29 Your letter has given me the vertigo—my head turns round like a chariot-wheel. a 1883 Fagge Princ. & Pract. Med. (1886) I. 702 The vertigo caused by derangement of the liver. |
c. With a, etc., and pl.
| c 1620 Fletcher & Massinger Trag. Barnavelt v. ii, Here's a Sword..cures all rhumes, all Catharres, megroomes, verteegoes. 1641 R. Brooke Eng. Episc. 5 Your Faulkners seele a Pigeons eye..to prevent a Vertigo. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 129 The Mountains fenced with horrible Gulphs, till strange Vertigoes prejudicate Fancy. 1731 Swift On his Death Wks. 1755 III. ii. 242 That old vertigo in his head Will never leave him, till he's dead. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 39 These..occasion palsies, vertigoes, and other nervous affections, which often prove fatal. 1830 Galt Life Byron xlvii. 310 He complained of frequent vertigos, which made him feel as though he were intoxicated. 1895 Zangwill Master iii. ii. 302 The fumes of expensive wines and cigars gave him a momentary vertigo. |
2. fig. A disordered state of mind, or of things, comparable to giddiness.
| 1634 Wither Embl. 231 Those uselesse and vaine temp'rall things..which if thereupon our hearts we set Make men and women the vertigo get. 1661 Bagshaw in Baxter Acc. to Inhabitants Kidderminster 43 For him now to be suddenly advanced so much beyond his Art, will run the poor man into a dangerous Vertigo. 1702 Steele Funeral i. ii, How dizzy a Place is this World you live in! All Human Life's a mere Vertigo! 1709 ― Tatler No. 29 ¶7 Absolute Power is only a Vertigo in the Brain of Princes. 1810 Bentham Packing (1821) 187 The British Themis seems little..in danger of being healed of her habitual vertigo by this one hand. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. v, There was a certain delirious vertigo in the thought. 1875 Jevons Money (1878) 217 That dangerous kind of intellectual vertigo which often attacks writers on the currency. |
3. The act of whirling round and round.
| 1853 De Quincey Autobiog. Sk. Wks. I. 44 It was not a humming-top that was required, but a peg-top. Now, this, in order to keep up the vertigo at full stretch,..needed to be whipped incessantly. |