aphasia

English

Alternative forms

aphasy (dated)

Etymology

From French aphasie, from Ancient Greek ἀφασία (aphasía), from ἄφατος (áphatos, “speechless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + φάσις (phásis, “speech”). Equivalent to a- +‎ -phasia.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /əˈfeɪzɪə/, /əˈfeɪʒə/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

aphasia (countable and uncountable, plural aphasias)

(pathology) A partial or total loss of language skills due to brain damage. Usually, damage to the left perisylvian region, including Broca's area and Wernicke's area, causes aphasia.
- 1865, “Discussions upon Aphasia”, in Medical and Surgical Reporter‎, volume 8, page 197:
  The very disease aphasia is to most of us a new one; and we venture to say that even yet no one can give a satisfactory definition of Trousseau's new term.
- 1865, J. T. Banks, “On the Loss of Language in Cerebral Disease”, in Dublin quarterly journal of medical science‎, volume 39, page 63:
  Of one form of aphasia we have an accurate description by Van Swieten, in his chapter on apoplexia:―"Vidi plures, qui ab apoplexiâ curati omnibus functionibus cerebri recte valebant, nisi quod deesset, hoc unicum, quod non possent vera rebus designandis vocabula invenire."
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, "The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin" in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio 2005, p. 76:
  The Doctor came over in three minutes, and heard the story. ‘It's aphasia,’ he said.
- 2022 March 30, Maya Salam, “Bruce Willis Has Aphasia and Is ‘Stepping Away’ From His Career”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:
  Bruce Willis, the prolific action-movie star, has been diagnosed with aphasia — a disorder that affects the brain’s language center and a person’s ability to understand or express speech — and will step away from acting, his ex-wife, Demi Moore, announced in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

Derived terms

agrammatic aphasia
aphasiac
aphasic
Broca's aphasia
expressive aphasia
jargonaphasia
jargon aphasia
motor aphasia
paraphasia
receptive aphasia
Wernicke's aphasia

Related terms

monophasia

Translations

pathological speech disorder

Armenian: անխոսություն (hy) (anxosutʿyun), աֆազիա (hy) (afazia)
Catalan: afàsia f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 失語症／失语症 (zh) (shīyǔzhèng)
Czech: afázie f
Danish: afasi (da) c
Dutch: afasie (nl) f
Esperanto: afazio
Estonian: afaasia (et)
Faroese: málloysi n
Finnish: afasia (fi)
French: aphasie (fr) f
Galician: afasia f
Georgian: აფაზია (apazia)
German: Aphasie (de) f
Greek: αφασία (el) f (afasía)
Hungarian: afázia (hu)
Icelandic: málstol n
Ido: afazio (io)
Interlingua: aphasia
Irish: afáise f
Italian: afasia (it) f, afemia f
Japanese: 失語症 (しつごしょう, shitsugoshō)
Norwegian: afasi (no) m
Polish: afazja (pl) f
Portuguese: afasia (pt) f
Russian: афа́зия (ru) f (afázija)
Spanish: afasia (es) f
Swedish: afasi (sv)
Vietnamese: á khẩu (vi)