noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
UK:/mɔː(ɹ)ˈd͡ʒɛlənz/
US:/mɔɹˈd͡ʒɛlənz/
US:/mɔɹˈɡɛlənz/
1
noun
Meaning 1
An unproven skin disorder, usually thought to be delusional parasitosis, characterized by skin lesions in which fibers are found.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A disease causing hairs to grow on the backs of children.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
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”).