Morgellons

English

Etymology

Coined in 2004 by Mary Leitao after a description of an illness in Thomas Browne's A Letter to a Friend (c. 1656, pub. 1690), “that Endemial Distemper of little Children in Languedock, called the Morgellons, wherein they critically break out with harsh Hairs on their Backs”, apparently a corruption of Masquelons, from Provençal masclous (“little flies”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɔː(ɹ)ˈd͡ʒɛlənz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɔɹˈd͡ʒɛlənz/, /mɔɹˈɡɛlənz/

Noun

Morgellons (uncountable)

1. (pathology) An unproven skin disorder, usually thought to be delusional parasitosis, characterized by skin lesions in which fibers are found.
2. (obsolete) A disease causing hairs to grow on the backs of children.
   • 1690, Thomas Browne, A Letter to a Friend:

     But Hairs make fallible Predictions, and many Temples early gray have out-lived the Psalmist's Period. Hairs which have most amused me have not been in the Face or Head, but on the Back, and not in Men but Children, as I long ago observed in that Endemial Distemper of little Children in Languedock, called the Morgellons, wherein they critically break out with harsh Hairs on their Backs, which takes off the Unquiet Symptomes of the Disease, and delivers them from Coughs and Convulsions.

Synonyms

• (skin disorder with fibers): Morgellons disease, Morgellons syndrome