vermiculation

Meanings

1. The process of being turned into a worm.
2. The state of being infested or consumed by worms.
3. A pattern of irregular wavy lines resembling worms or their casts or tracks, found on the plumage of birds, used to decorate artworks and buildings, etc.
4. Peristalsis (“wave-like contraction of the digestive tract, resembling the movement of a worm”).

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vermiculātiōnem, from vermiculor (“to be worm-eaten, to be wormy”) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or the results of actions) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-tis (suffix forming abstract or action nouns from verb roots)). The Latin verb is from vermis (“worm”) (from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis (“worm”), possibly from *wer- (“to turn”)).