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''megrim'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260915190735-00-⌔

megrim - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

megrim (plural megrims)

  • (now rare) A headache; a migraine. [from 15th c.]
  • (now rare) A fancy, a whim, a caprice. [from 16th c.]
  • (in the plural) See megrims (“depression; any of various diseases of animals”).
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:megrim.

Noun

megrim (plural megrims)

  • A flatfish of the genus Lepidorhombus native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean; specifically, a Cornish sole, sail-fluke, witch or whiff (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis).
    • ✤ * MEGRIM (LEPIDORHOMBUS WHIFFIAGONIS) […] NOTE: In Ireland,this species is often called “witch”, a name that properly belongs to the craigfluke, Glyptocephalus cynaglossus, which is a right-handed flatfish. Both species are marketed as “white sole.”*1

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈmiːɡɹɪm/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French migraigne, semi-learned borrowing from Late Latin hēmicrānia (“pain in one half of the head”), from Ancient Greek ἡμικρᾱνίᾰ (hēmikrāníă), from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “hemi-, half”) + κρανίον (kraníon, “skull”) (whence also English cranium).2 Doublet of migraine and hemicrania.

Etymology 2

Unknown.

Printed 2026-09-15.

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Footnotes

  1. 2016, http://specimenfish.ie/irish-record-fish/marine-species/megrim-lepidorhombus-whiffiagonis/: ↩

  2. Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “megrim”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. ↩