hemicrania

• hemicrany (dated)

From Late Latin hemicrania (“pain in one half of the head”), from Ancient Greek ἡμικρᾱνίᾰ (hēmikrāníă), from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “hemi-, half”) + κρανίον (kraníon, “skull”) (from whence also cranium).

Cognate to megrim and migraine, which also derive from the Latin.

• Rhymes: -eɪniə

hemicrania (countable and uncountable, plural hemicranias)

1. (pathology) A headache affecting one side of the head.
   • 1993, The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, translation Burgin and O’Connor, Chapter 2, p. 17:

     “Gods, gods, why do you punish me? Yes, no doubt it is upon me again, again this terrible, invincible affliction … this hemicrania which grips half the head with pain … without remedy, without escape … I must try not to move my head. …”

Medical term, used in some literary contexts; not used in everyday speech. Instead more general headache or more specific migraine used.

• megrim
• migraine

• hemicranial

• megrim
• migraine

• amphicrania

• hēmicrānium

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἡμικρᾱνίᾰ (hēmikrāníă).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [heː.mɪˈkraː.ni.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [e.miˈkraː.ni.a]

hēmicrānia f (genitive hēmicrāniae); first declension

1. (Late Latin) migraine, headache

First-declension noun.

All inherited descendants reflect a shortened */meˈkraɲa/ ~ */miˈkraɲa/:

• hemicrania in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

• Hyphenation: he‧mi‧cra‧ni‧a

hemicrania f (plural hemicranias)

1. (pathology) hemicrania (a headache affecting one side of the head)

   Synonym: enxaqueca