hemicrania

Forms

hēmicrānia f (genitive hēmicrāniae); first declension^[1] Beside it there is a neuter ⟨hēmicrānium⟩, which the TLL finds more often, and a rare masculine ⟨hemicranius⟩.^[2][3][4] Spellings include ⟨emigrania⟩ and ⟨hemigranea⟩.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía, “pain in one half of the head”),^[1][5][2] from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “half”) and κρανίον (kraníon, “skull”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Serenus Sammonicus, whose medical poem has the neuter in a heading.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It first meant one half of the head: the Medicina Plinii prescribes an ointment for the sides of the head,^[2][7] and Ambrose uses it of the membrane that protects the brain.^[2][7] Caelius Aurelianus and Marcellus Empiricus use it of the pain itself, a migraine,^[3][7][2] and Theodorus Priscianus calls those who suffer it hēmicrānicī.^[3] Medieval writers kept both senses, and also used it of a worm thought to cause the pain and, by confusion with another Greek term, of the membrane covering the skull.^[4][5]

Through a popular pronunciation it became French migraine, the source of English migraine (late 14th century);^[6][5] Italian has the learned emicrania.^[7]

Timeline

• 3rd century AD – Serenus Sammonicus has the neuter in a heading.^[2][5]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it of the membrane round the brain.^[2][7][5]
• c. 400 AD – Theodorus Priscianus names the sufferers hēmicrānicī.^[3][5]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of migraine.^[3][7][5]
• late 14th century – English borrows migraine from Old French.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) One half of the head; the membrane that encloses the brain.^[2][7][4]
2. (Late Latin, medicine) Migraine, pain in one side of the head.^[3][8][7][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) The membrane covering the skull.^[4][5]

Word family

• hēmicrānicus

Related words

• English migraine

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.