a. and sb. Obs. exc. dial. Also 5–6 -seke, 6 -sycke, -sicke. [f. TURN v. + SICK a.]
† A. adj. Affected with vertigo; giddy; dizzy.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 507/1. Turnseke, vertiginosus.
1534. Whitinton, Tullyes Offices, I. (1540), 49. We here tell of Lysander of Lacedemony, a turnesycke person and a man that myght abyde all paynes.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 795. If a Man see another turn swiftly, and long; Or if he look upon Wheels that turne, Himselfe waxeth Turne-sick.
1657. J. Watts, Dipper Sprinkled, 6. Running round in a ring until you be turn-sick and giddy-headed.
fig. a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 179. You are fallen out with your selues, and turne-sick with the maze of your own inuentions. Ibid., 382. These turnesick Iesuites make their note cleane contrary to the text.
a. 1617. Bayne, On Eph. (1658), 104. An escape of a turn-sick brain blinded with wilfulness.
1664. J. C., Praxis Lat. Syntax, 130. Divers teachers, so giddy turn-sick.
† b. Turn-sick giddiness, vertigo. Obs.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 192. The water of this hearbe … helpeth the turnesicke giddinesse of the heade.
B. sb. † 1. a. Vertigo, swimming in the head; also, staggers in the horse Obs.
c. 1450. in Vicary’s Anat. (1888), App. ix. 229. Be-hynde þe eres er twa vayns þat er gude to be opynd for turnseke and for scall, & alsso for euyll sight.
1565. Blundevil, Horsemanship, IV. xvi. (1580), 8. In the ventricles or celles of the braine … do breede the turnesicke, or staggers.
1592. in Vicary’s Anat. (1888), App. ix. 228. If thowe lett blode of thoo, His syght shall neuer fale, And heles of torne-seke, and of scale.
2. A disease caused by an encysted worm in the brain of the sheep; the gid or sturdy. dial. Cf. TURN sb. 3
1834. Youatt, Cattle, 294. The sheep is subject to a disease strangely termed turnsick, in which the animal goes round and round. Ibid. (1837), Sheep, 391. The turnsick is not so frequent as it used to be thirty or forty years ago.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 877. There is a disease in sheep called sturdy or turnsick.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 136. The cause of the disease commonly known as the ‘sturdy,’ ‘gid,’ ‘staggers,’ or ‘turn-sick.’
Hence † Turnsickness = B. 1. Obs.
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 137. The headache, fallinge sicknesse, swindle or turnsicknes.
