formication

American  

[fawr-mi-key-shuhn] / ˌfɔr mɪˈkeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. a tactile hallucination involving the belief that something is crawling on the body or under the skin.

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formication British  

/ ˌfɔːmɪˈkeɪʃən /

noun

1. a sensation of insects crawling on the skin; symptom of a nerve disorder

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Etymology

Origin of formication

1700–10; < Latin (Pliny) formīcātiōn-, stem of formīcātiō a sensation that ants are crawling on one's skin, equivalent to formicā ( re ) to have such a sensation (verbal derivative of formīca ant) + -tiōn- -tion

Example Sentences

Even with oxygen, pilots may get the bends or the chokes.*Also: a man cannot whistle, and he is likely to suffer from formication �the feeling that ants are marching over his body. 43,000 Ft.

From Time Magazine Archive

The track was now hard and palpable, but there was no hyperæsthesia in any area; when the track was manipulated slight formication in the hand was experienced.

From Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre by Makins, George Henry

The initial indications of the disease were cutaneous itching, tingling and formication, which gave place to actual loss of cutaneous sensation, first observed in the extremities.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 7 "Equation" to "Ethics" by Various

A woman of fifty-two, married but having no children, and of negative family history, six years before the time of report showed the first symptoms of the affection, which began with formication in the finger-tips.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)

Frequently there are also peculiar skin sensations, which usually approach formication in type, and these, like the pains, are apt to shift with rapidity from one part of the body to another.

From Neuralgia and the Diseases that Resemble it by Anstie, Francis E.