Etymologically
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hemicrania

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [heː.mɪˈkraː.ni.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [e.miˈkraː.ni.a][1]

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

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.