megrim

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmiːɡɹɪm/

From Middle French migraigne, from Late Latin hemicrania (“pain in one half of the head”), from Ancient Greek ἡμικρᾱνίᾰ (hēmikrānía), from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “hemi-, half”) + κρανίον (kraníon, “skull”) (whence also cranium).[1] Compare migraine, hemicrania.

megrim (plural megrims)

1. (now rare) A headache; a migraine. [from 15th c.]
2. (in the plural) Depression, low spirits, unhappiness. [from 16th c.]
   • 1766, George Colman & David Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage, Act iv, Scene 2.

     Thou art properly my cephalick ſnuff, and art no bad medicine againſt megrims, vertigoes, and profound thinking […]

3. (now rare) A fancy, a whim, a caprice. [from 16th c.]
4. (in the plural) Any of various diseases of animals, especially horses, marked by a disturbance of equilibrium and abnormal gait and behaviour such as staggers or a sudden vertigo, sometimes followed by unconsciousness; the staggers. [from 17th c.]

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:megrim.

• hemicrania
• migraine

Origin unknown.

megrim (plural megrims)

1. A type of European deep water flatfish, Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis; the whiff or sail-fluke.

• gimmer