Also 7 vertego, -teego, virtigo. [L. vertīgo a turning or whirling round, giddiness, etc., f. vertĕre to turn. Cf. F. and Sp. vertigo; also F. vertige, Pg. vertigem, It. vertigine.
The various modes of pronouncing this word form the subject of an elaborate note by Walker (1797), arguing in favor of that with the stress on the first syllable.]
1. Path. A disordered condition in which the person affected has a sensation of whirling, either of external objects or of himself, and tends to lose equilibrium and consciousness; swimming in the head; giddiness, dizziness: a. Without article.
Sometimes applied to the staggers in horses or the sturdy in sheep, and in quot. 1619 to a disease of hawks.
1528. Paynell, Salerne’s Regim., C iij b. The heed ache called vertigo: whiche maketh a man to wene that the world turneth.
1558. Bullein, Govt. Health, A v. Apoplexia and Vertigo will neuer fro the[e] starte, Untill the vitall blode be killed in the harte.
1619. E. Bert, Hawkes & Hawking, III. v. 85. A disease … of some called Vertego, it is a swimming of the braine.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Vertigo.
1766. Beattie, Lett., in Life & Writ. (1806), I. 93. Have I not headachs, like Pope? vertigo, like Swift?
1799. Med. Jrnl., II. 119. The most common effects observed from full doses, are vertigo, pain, or throbbing of the forehead. Ibid. (1803), X. 396. The general symptoms were pain across the forehead with vertigo.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk.-bk. (1872), 185. He felt as if attacked by vertigo, and his thoughts whirled in his brain.
1875. Richardson, Dis. Mod. Life, 72. In those who have irregular circulation through the brain, the tendency to giddiness and vertigo is more easily developed.
b. With the.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, III. vii. Our drinke … we will take, vntill my roofe whirle round With the vertigo.
1631. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlew. (1641), 316. What a circular gesture wee shall observe some use in their pace as if they were troubled with the vertigo.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v., The Vertigo will sometimes seize upon those who look down from an high Place.
1794. E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), I. 335. Thus on turning round on one foot, the vertigo continues for some seconds of time after the person is fallen on the ground.
1827. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1838), VII. 29. Your letter has given me the vertigo—my head turns round like a chariot-wheel.
a. 1883. Fagge, Princ. & Pract. Med. (1886), I. 702. The vertigo caused by derangement of the liver.
c. With a, etc., and pl.
c. 1620. Fletcher & Massinger, Trag. Barnavelt, V. ii. Here’s a Sword … cures all rhumes, all Catharres, megroomes, verteegoes.
1641. R. Brooke, Eng. Episc., 5. Your Faulkners seele a Pigeons eye … to prevent a Vertigo.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 129. The Mountains fenced with horrible Gulphs, till strange Vertigoes prejudicate Fancy.
1731. Swift, On his Death, Wks. 1755, III. II. 242. That old vertigo in his head Will never leave him, till he’s dead.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 39. These … occasion palsies, vertigoes, and other nervous affections, which often prove fatal.
1830. Galt, Life Byron, xlvii. 310. He complained of frequent vertigos, which made him feel as though he were intoxicated.
1895. Zangwill, Master, III. ii. 302. The fumes of expensive wines and cigars gave him a momentary vertigo.
2. fig. A disordered state of mind, or of things, comparable to giddiness.
1634. Wither, Embl., 231. Those uselesse and vaine temp’rall things … which if thereupon our hearts we set Make men and women the vertigo get.
1661. Bagshaw, in Baxter, Acc. to Inhabitants Kidderminster, 43. For him now to be suddenly advanced so much beyond his Art, will run the poor man into a dangerous Vertigo.
1702. Steele, Funeral, I. ii. How dizzy a Place is this World you live in! All Human Life’s a mere Vertigo! Ibid. (1709), Tatler, No. 29, ¶ 7. Absolute Power is only a Vertigo in the Brain of Princes.
1810. Bentham, Packing (1821), 187. The British Themis seems little … in danger of being healed of her habitual vertigo by this one hand.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. v. There was a certain delirious vertigo in the thought.
1875. Jevons, Money (1878), 217. That dangerous kind of intellectual vertigo which often attacks writers on the currency.
3. The act of whirling round and round.
1853. De Quincey, Autobiog. Sk., Wks. I. 44. It was not a humming-top that was required, but a peg-top. Now, this, in order to keep up the vertigo at full stretch,… needed to be whipped incessantly.
