Late Middle English; earliest use found in Lanfranc's Science of Cirurgie. Partly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French morphé (1240 in Anglo-Norman; also in Old French as morfoies, plural, morphee, morfea; French morphée), partly from their probable immediate etymon Italian morfea, and partly from their ultimate etymon post-classical Latin morphea, of uncertain origin; perhaps shortened from ancient Greek ἀμορϕία unsightliness, ugliness from ἀ- + μορϕή + -ία.