Morgellons

Meaning

Proper Noun

• An unproven skin disorder, usually thought to be delusional parasitosis, characterized by skin lesions in which fibers are found.
• A disease causing hairs to grow on the backs of children.

Related

Similar words

• Morgellons disease, Morgellons syndrome

Origin

• Coined 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 children in Languedoc, called the morgellons, wherein they critically break out with harsh hairs on their backs", apparently a corruption of Masquelons, from Provençal masclous ("little flies").