migraine

migraine

English

Etymology

1777 re-spelling (following French) of late 14th century Middle English megrim, from 13th century Old French migraigne, from Vulgar Latin pronunciation of Latin hemicrania (“pain in one half of the head”), from Ancient Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía), from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “hemi-, half”) + κρανίον (kraníon, “skull”) (whence also cranium)[1], a calque of Egyptian gs-tp (“headache”),[2][3] from gs (“half”) + tp (“head”), although the link between the Egyptian magical papyri and the Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía) could be purely incidental.

Cognate to megrim, hemicrania.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪɡɹeɪn/, /ˈmiːɡɹeɪn/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US, Canada) enPR: mī'grān, IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪɡɹeɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪɡɹeɪn

Noun

migraine (countable and uncountable, plural migraines)

1. (pathology) A severe, disabling headache, usually affecting only one side of the head, and often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, photophobia and visual disturbances.

   He had a headache so bad that he wished he was dead, but it was the sort of migraine that promised him he would continue to suffer but not die.

   After consuming too much coffee every day for six weeks, she got severe migraines that would last up until 47 minutes after her first cup of coffee.

   • 2006, Dian Caouette, Migraine Rewritten: A Journey from Debilitating Headache Pain to Regained Health, page 6,

     It was in 1976, during our first family holiday to Disneyland, California, that my family learned the difference between a headache and a migraine.

   • 2013, Susan Hutchinson, The Woman's Guide to Managing Migraine, page 18,

     A team of international researchers has recently identified the first—ever genetic link to common migraine (common migraine refers to migraine without aura, and it is the most common type of migraine that occurs).

   • 2013, Health Press Publishing, Natural Therapies and Prevention for Headaches and Migraines, unnumbered page,

     Migraine headaches are fortunately suffered by a relatively small percentage of people, but for those who do suffer, migraines can literally take over their life.

2. (pathology) A neurological condition characterised by such headaches.
   • 1995, Robert A. Davidoff, Migraine: Manifestations, Pathogenesis, and Management, page 60,

     Syncope is estimated to occur in bouts of headache in approximately 5% of adult patients with migraine.

   • 2005, Michael H. Silber, Chapter 28: Headaches and sleep disorders, Christian Guilleminault (editor), Clinical Neurophysiology of Sleep Disorders, page 337,

     Migraine is characterized by recurrent unilateral, often pulsating, headaches, worsened by physical activity and associated with nausea, photophobia and phonophobia.

   • 2006, Joshua W. Devine, Daily Migraine Prevention and Its Influence on Resource Utilization in the Military Health System, PhD Thesis, page 1,

     Migraine is a common and disabling neurological disorder with substantial variation in the frequency, severity, and duration of headaches (Goadsby, Lipton, & Ferrari, 2002).

Synonyms

• (severe disabling headache): hemicrania, megrim (rare), migraine headache, sick headache

Related terms

• abdominal migraine
• migraineur
• migrainous

Translations

headache usually affecting only one side of the head

Arabic: شَقِيقَة‎ f (šaqīqa) Belarusian: мігрэ́нь f (mihrénʹ) Bulgarian: мигрена f (migrena) Catalan: migranya (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 偏頭痛／偏头痛 (zh) (piāntóutòng), 偏頭疼／偏头疼 (piāntóuténg) Czech: migréna (cs) f Danish: migræne (da) c Dutch: migraine (nl) f Egyptian: (gs-tp) Estonian: migreen Finnish: migreeni (fi) French: migraine (fr) f Galician: xaqueca f Georgian: შაკიკი (ka) (šaḳiḳi) German: Migräne (de) f Greek: ημικρανία (el) f (imikranía) Hebrew: מיגרנה‎ (he) f Hungarian: migrén (hu) Ido: migreno (io) Indonesian: migrain (id) Irish: mígréin f Italian: emicrania (it) f Japanese: 偏頭痛 (へんずつう, henzutsū) Korean: 편두통(偏頭痛) (ko) (pyeondutong) Latvian: migrēna f Marathi: अर्धशिशी (ardhaśiśī) Neapolitan: mengrània f Norwegian: Bokmål: migrene (no) m Nynorsk: migrene m Persian: میگرن‎ (fa) (migren) Polish: migrena (pl) f Portuguese: enxaqueca (pt) f Romanian: migrenă (ro) f Russian: мигре́нь (ru) f (migrénʹ) Spanish: migraña (es) f, jaqueca (es) f Swedish: migrän (sv) c Turkish: migren (tr) Ukrainian: мігре́нь f (mihrénʹ) Welsh: meigryn m Afrikaans: skeelhoofpyn

neurological condition

Greek: ημικρανία (el) f (imikranía)

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “migraine”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
2. Borghouts, The magical texts of Papyrus Leiden I 348, 1971. p.9
3. Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 164

Anagrams

• imaginer, reaiming, regimina

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French migraine, from Middle French migraine, from Old French migraigne, from Late Latin hēmicrānia (“pain in one half of the head”), from Ancient Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía), calque of Egyptian gs-tp (“headache”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmiˈɡrɛː.nə/, /ˌmiˈɣrɛː.nə/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧grai‧ne
• Rhymes: -ɛːnə

Noun

migraine f (plural migraines, diminutive migrainetje n)

1. migraine

Derived terms

• chateau migraine

Descendants

• → Indonesian: migrain
• → Papiamentu: migrèn, migraine

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French

Etymology

From Late Latin hemicrania, from Ancient Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛn

Noun

migraine f (plural migraines)

1. migraine

Descendants

• → Danish: migræne
• → Dutch: migraine
• → English: migraine
• → German: Migräne
• → Middle English: megrim
  • English: migraine, megrim
• → Polish: migrena
• → Romanian: migrenă
• → Russian: мигре́нь (migrénʹ)
• → Turkish: migren

Further reading

• “migraine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• imaginer