[a. F. tic, first known as the name of an equine affection: ticq, tiquet ‘a disease which on a sudden stopping a horse’s breath, makes him to stop, and stand still’ (Cotgr., 1611). Origin uncertain; Diez compares It. ticchio whim, freak, caprice. See also TICK sb.5]
1. A disease or affection characterized by spasmodic twitching of certain muscles, esp. of the face; nearly always short for tic douloureux: see 2.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), III. 219. The word tic is commonly supposed to be an onomatopy, or a sound expressive of the action it imports.
1849. Claridge, Cold Water-cure, 106. A person … suffering from Tic in his legs.
1860. Dickens, Lett., 5 June. Smith … has been dreadfully ill with tic.
1873. Stevenson, Lett. (1901), I. 62. I do not expect any tic to-night.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 868. Both in this country and in America, the term ‘tic’ has been applied to … facial spasm (‘tic non-douloureux’), or to facial neuralgia (‘tic douloureux’); Ibid., VIII. 40. A phenomenon in the symptomatology of simple tic (habit-spasm).
ǁ 2. Tic douloureux [F., = painful twitching], severe facial neuralgia with twitching of the facial muscles.
(Often misspelt by English writers dolo-, dolou-, douleu-.)
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 575. The Dolor Faciei, or, as the French call it, Tic Douloreux, is a disorder which has, in general, frustrated all attempts of the medical art.
1800. Home, in Phil. Trans., XCI. 20. The Tic douleureux is a remarkable instance.
1822. Good, Study Med., I. 55. The maddening pain of neuralgia faciei, or tic douloureux.
1824. Lamb, Lett., To B. Barton (1838), II. 162. I hope … thy tick doleru, or, however you spell it, is vanished.
1861. Lytton, Str. Story, I. 58. A poor old gentleman, tormented by tic-doloreux.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 289. The disease known as ‘tic-douloureux’ is an affection of the fifth nerve and its branches, but any nerve in the body is liable to suffer.
3. A whim: see TICK sb.5 2.
