hemicrania

American  

[hem-i-krey-nee-uh] / ˌhɛm ɪˈkreɪ ni ə /

noun

1. pain in one side of the head.

2. migraine.

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Other Word Forms

• hemicranic adjective

Etymology

Origin of hemicrania

1650–60; < Late Latin hēmicrānia, hēmicrānium < Greek hēmikrā́nion pain on one side of the head ( hemi-, cranium )

Example Sentences

The doctor mentions several possible diagnoses: new daily persistent headache, migraine with aura, and hemicrania continua, a headache on one side of the head that never ends.

From The Guardian • Nov. 17, 2016

The hemicrania, or partial head-ach, I believe to be almost always a disease from association; though it is not impossible, but a person may take cold on one side of the head only.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

The dens sapienti�, or last tooth of the upper jaw, frequently decays first, and gives hemicrania over the eye on the same side.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

The periods of hemicrania, and of painful epilepsy, are liable to obey lunar periods, both in their diurnal returns, and in their greater periods of weeks, but are also induced by other exciting causes.

From Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus

For the later transition of meaning we may compare megrims, from Fr. migraine, head-ache, Greco-Lat. hemicrania, lit. half-skull, because supposed to affect one side only of the head.

From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest