▪ I. megrim1
(ˈmiːgrɪm)
Forms: α. 5 mygrane, -ene, -eyn, 6 -ayne, megryne, 7 migrane. β. 4 mygrame, 5 -greyme, migrym, my(e)grym, midgrame, -grym, 6 migramme, -grym(me, mygrim, magryme, maigram, meigryme, megrym(e, 6–7 megrime, migram, meigrim, megrum, 7 megro(o)me, -greme, -grimme, mygram, migrim, migrame, migraim, migreame, 7–9 meagrim, 6– megrim.
[a. F. migraine (13th c.), semi-popular ad. late L. hēmicrānia: see hemicrane. Cf. Sp. migraña, It. magrana. The Fr. migraine is now the most usual synonym of hemicrania; mod.G. has migräne, Sw. migrän.]
1. Hemicrania; a form of severe headache usually confined to one side of the head; nervous or sick headache; an attack of this ailment.
| α c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 4584 A feruent mygreyn was in þe ryȝt syde of hurre hedde. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 337/1 Mygreyme, sekenesse (S. mygrene), emigranea. 1483 Cath. Angl. 239/1 Þe Mygrane; vbi emigrane. c 1530 Hickscorner (Manly) 292, I sayd, that in my heed I had the megryne. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Form. X j, The seconde fourme is of mygrayne. 1603 Florio Montaigne iii. xiii. (1632) 617 The mind is..confounded by a migrane. |
| β 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. v. (1495) 87 The mygrame and other euyll passyons of the heed. c 1460 Play Sacram. 613 For..alle maner red eyne bleryd eyn & þe myegrym also [etc.]. c 1566 Merie Tales of Skelton in Skelton's Wks. (1893) I. p. lx, Other whyle he woulde saye hee had the megrym in hys head. 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 58 It is not a softe shooe that healeth the Gowte..nor a crown of Pearle that cureth the Meigrim. 1634 T. Johnson Parey's Chirurg. xvii. iv. (1678) 376 The Megrim is properly a disease affecting the one side of the head, right or left. 1668 R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 268 By how much it is more Honourable to Dye upon a Swords-point..than for a Man to snivel and sneeze himself into another World; or to go away in a Meagrim. 1713 Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 229 For the Megrim, they smoak..the dried Bark of a Pomegranate Tree. 1871 G. H. Napheys Prev. & Cure Dis. iii. x. 1005 Brow-ague, or megrims, as it is sometimes called. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 543 Attacks of megrim are often accompanied by..contraction of the temporal artery. |
b. = vertigo.
| 1595 Duncan App. Etymol. (E.D.S.) 75 Vertigo, dizzinesse, the migramme. 1626 Bacon Sylva §725 In every Megrim, or Vertigo, there is an Obtenebration joyned with a Semblance of Turning Round. 1679 ‘Ephelia’ Female Poems 7 A giddy Megrim wheel'd about my head. 1804 Med. Jrnl. XII. 109 A gentleman..was suddenly attacked with a severe pain in his forehead, accompanied with so much megrim and stomach sickness, as would have caused him to fall, had he not received support. |
c. fig.
| a 1536 Tindale Exp. Matt. v-vii. (?1550) 50 The weake and feble eyes of the world deseased with the mygrym and accustomed to darcknesse. 1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. (Vol. I.) 228 Send me something to rid me of the Megreme I have taken in reading the sotteries of these times. ? c 1660 R. Wild Poems (1670) 27 The meagrim of opinions, new or old, The colic in the conscience, he could cure. 1685 Sir G. Mackenzie Relig. Stoic 42 Finding that Fortunes megrim could not be cured. |
2. A whim, fancy, fad.
| 1593 R. Harvey Philad. 23 Iago..died of a frensie, as he liued with a megrim. 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies, Traveller 91 Hee is troubled with a perpetuall migrim; at sea hee wisheth to bee on land, and on land at sea. 1711 E. Ward Quix. I. 235 With Fifty Meagrims in his Head. 1716 Addison Drummer i. i, Whims! freaks! megrims! indeed Mrs. Abigal. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt xi, Can't one work for sober truth as hard as for megrims? 1884 Harper's Mag. Aug. 466/2 What confounded megrim has seized you? |
3. pl. ‘Vapours’; ‘blue devils’; low spirits.
| 1633 Ford Broken H. iii. ii, These are his megrims, firks, and melancholies. 1754 Richardson Grandison (1781) VI. xlv. 286 If these megrims are the effect of Love, thank Heaven, I never knew what it was. 1823 in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. 451 A very fine lady, and subject to the meagrims. 1887 G. R. Sims Mary Jane's Mem. 214 Nurses..having as many dislikes as a fashionable lady with the megrims. |
4. pl. The staggers or vertigo (in animals).
| 1639 T. de la Grey Compl. Horsem. 69 These paines in the head..breed megrims. 1765 Treat. Dom. Pigeons 39 The next.. distemper incident to this kind of birds is the vertigo, or (as generally styled by the fancy) the megrims. 1849 D. J. Browne Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 261 This is evidently the same disorder which Dr. Bechstein terms epilepsy, and Mr. Clater, the megrims or giddiness. 1850 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 321 The poor mare was suddenly seized with megrims, or mad staggers. |
Hence † meˈgrimical a., of or belonging to megrim; ˈmegrimish a., inclined to megrim.
| 1661 K. W. Conf. Charac., Detracting Empirick (1860) 65 This quackroyall is never..so happy as when he's..telling them [his patients]..how many megrimicall and hypocondriacal humors he hath dissipated. 1855 R. Redgrave in Memoir vi. (1891) 160 The maid was summoned to dress her mistress. She found her languid and megrimish. |
▪ II. megrim2 dial.
(ˈmiːgrɪm)
Also megrin.
The scald-fish, Arnoglossus laterna.
| 1836 Yarrell Brit. Fishes II. 254 The Scaldfish, or Megrim, as it is called in Cornwall. 1881 Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 69 The Scald-fish, or Megrim, or Smooth Sole (Arnoglossus laterna). 1900 Dundee Advert. 5 Jan. 2 When whitches and megrins have arrived in any great quantity, values have speedily dropped. 1901 Scotsman 14 Mar. 4/4 Aberdeen..prices,..megrims., 20s. to 22s. per box. |