Posted by Jayne (152.163.197.57) on July 26, 2001 at 16:52:13:
Megrim: A disorder of the head, attended with a sensation of turning round - Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775.
A pain in the head, supposed to arise from the biting of a worm [vermis capitis] ... hence, as caprices were also supposed to arise from the biting of a maggot, the name "megrim" was also given to any capricious fancy. the origin of the word [now, migraine] is Greek hemi, half, and cranium, skull - Dictionary of English Etymology, 1878.
worm-month: Part of July and part of August; a fortnight before and a fortnight after Lammas.
(I thought your more intellectual clusterboard buddies might find this interesting.)
Patti