The story
- Provençal · derived frommasclous“little flies”
- English todayMorgellons
Coined in 2004 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 little Children in Languedock, called the Morgellons, wherein they critically break out with harsh Hairs on their Backs”, apparently a corruption of Masquelons, from Provençal masclous (“little flies”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.