schizophrenia

English

Etymology

First attested 1908, from New Latin schizophrenia, from German Schizophrenie, coined by Eugen Bleuler, from Ancient Greek σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”) + φρήν (phrḗn, “mind, heart, diaphragm”) + -ia.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌskɪt.səˈfɹiː.ni.ə/, /ˌskɪt.səˈfɹɛ.ni.ə/, /ˌskɪz.əˈfɹiː.ni.ə/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

schizophrenia (countable and uncountable, plural schizophrenias)

(pathology) A psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness characterised by abnormal perception, thinking, behavior and emotion, often marked by delusions.
(informal, figurative) Any condition in which disparate or mutually exclusive activities coexist; a lack of decision between options.
- 2006, Bertus Praeg, Ethiopia and Political Renaissance in Africa (page 213)
  […] one can understand how the cultural disorientation which beset the African Continent has confused Africa's political behaviour, creating a political schizophrenia that made nation-building impossible.
- 2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes‎, page 305:
  Nevertheless, a certain amount of schizophrenia pertains to the study of World Englishes as New Englishes, for while new Englishes are regarded as valid varieties in their own right, the description and delineation of them in linguistic terms is conducted through the gaze of native-speaker norms.

Usage notes

In popular usage, the term is often confused with dissociative identity disorder (also known as multiple personality disorder).

Synonyms

dementia praecox
schizophrenic disorder
schizophrenic psychosis

Hyponyms

borderline schizophrenia
catatonic schizophrenia
disorganized schizophrenia
hebephrenic schizophrenia
latent schizophrenia
object schizophrenia
paranoid schizophrenia
paraphrenic schizophrenia
pseudoneurotic schizophrenia
reactive schizophrenia

Derived terms

antischizophrenia
borderline schizophrenia
catatonic schizophrenia
disorganized schizophrenia
hebephrenic schizophrenia
latent schizophrenia
nonschizophrenia
object schizophrenia
paranoid schizophrenia
paraphrenic schizophrenia
pseudoschizophrenia
reactive schizophrenia
schizophrene
schizophrenese
schizophreniac
schizophrenialike
schizophrenic
schizophreniform
schizophrenogenesis
schizophrenogenic
sluggish schizophrenia

Related terms

frantic
frenetic
frenzied
frenzy
phrenology
schism
schist

Translations

mental disorder

Afrikaans: skisofrenie
Albanian: skizofrenia f
Amharic: አኩሶዞረንያ (ʾäkusozoränya)
Arabic: فُصَام‎ (fuṣām), الْفِصَام الذُّهَانِيّ‎ (al-fiṣām aḏ-ḏuhāniyy), اِنْفِصَامُ الشَّخْصِيَّة‎ (infiṣāmu š-šaḵṣiyya), شيزوفرينيا‎ f (šizufrenya), اِنْشِطَار الشَّخْصِيَّة‎ (inšiṭār aš-šaḵṣiyya)
Egyptian Arabic: شيزوفرينيا‎ f (šizufrenya)
Aragonese: esquizofrenia f
Armenian: շիզոֆրենիա (hy) (šizofrenia)
Asturian: esquizofrenia f
Azerbaijani: şizofreniya
Bashkir: шизофрения (şizofreniya)
Basque: eskizofrenia
Belarusian: шызафрэнія f (šyzafrenija), схізафрэнія f (sxizafrenija)
Bengali: স্কিটসোফ্রিনিয়া (skiṭôsophriniya)
Bulgarian: шизофрения (bg) f (šizofrenija)
Burmese: စိတ်ကစဉ့်ကလျားရောဂါ (citka.cany.ka.lya:rau:ga)
Catalan: esquizofrènia (ca) f
Chichewa: misala
Chinese:
Cantonese: 精神分裂症 (zing¹san⁴fan⁶lit⁶zing³), 思覺失調症, 思觉失调症 (si¹gaau³sat¹deu⁶zing¹)
Mandarin: 精神分裂症 (zh) (jīngshén fēnlièzhèng) (Mainland), 思覺失調症／思觉失调症 (sījuéshītiáozhèng) (Taiwan)
Min Nan: chêng-sîn-hun-lia̍t
Czech: schizofrenie (cs) f
Danish: skizofreni (da) c, ungdomssløvsind n (obsolete)
Dutch: schizofrenie (nl)
Esperanto: skizofrenio
Estonian: skisofreenia (et)
Finnish: skitsofrenia (fi), jakomielisyys (fi), jakomielitauti (fi)
French: schizophrénie (fr) f
Galician: esquizofrenia (gl) f
Georgian: შიზოფრენია (šizoprenia)
German: Schizophrenie (de) f
Greek: σχιζοφρένεια (el) f (schizofréneia), σχιζοφρενία (el) f (schizofrenía)
Greenlandic: skizofrenii
Gujarati: સ્કિઝોફ્રેનિઆ (skijhophreniā)
Haitian Creole: eskizofreni
Hebrew: סְכִיזוֹפְרֶנְיָה‎ (he) f (skizofrenya)
Hindi: मनोविदलता f (manovidaltā)
Hungarian: skizofrénia (hu)
Icelandic: geðklofi m
Ido: skizofrenio (io)
Igbo: isi mgbaka (ig)
Indonesian: skizofrenia (id)
Interlingua: schizophrenia
Irish: scitsifréine
Italian: schizofrenia (it) f
Japanese: 統合失調症 (tōgōshitchōshō), 精神分裂病 (seishinbunretsubyō) (superseded)
Javanese: skizofrénia
Kannada: ಸ್ಕಿಝೋಫ್ರೇನಿಯ (skijhōphrēniya), ಇಚ್ಚಿತ್ತ ವಿಕಲತೆ (iccitta vikalate)
Kazakh: шизофрения (şizofreniä)
Korean: 조현병 (johyeonbyeong), 정신분열증 (jeongsinbunyeoljeung), 정신분열증의 (jeongsinbunyeoljeung'ui) (superseded)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: شیزۆفرێنیا‎ (şîzofrênya)
Northern Kurdish: şîzofrenî (ku)
Kyrgyz: шизофрения (ky) (şizofreniya)
Latin: morbus dissidentiae phreneticae, dēmentia praecox, dēmentia præcox (obsolete), schizophrenia
Latvian: šizofrēnija f
Lithuanian: šizofrènija f
Macedonian: шизофренија f (šizofrenija)
Malagasy: aretin-tsaina
Malay: skizofrenia
Malayalam: സ്കിസോഫ്രീനിയ (skisōfrīniya), ചിത്തഭ്രമം (ml) (cittabhramaṃ)
Maltese: skizofrenija f, iskiżofrenja
Maori: māuiui wairua tuakoi, tuakoi, pōauau
Marathi: छिन्‍नमनस्कता (chin‍namnaskatā)
Mazanderani: اسکیزوفرنی‎ (eskizoferni)
Mongolian:
шизофрени (šizofreni) ᠰᠢᠽᠣᠹᠷᠧᠨᠢ (sizofrēni)
хий солио (xii solio) ᠬᠡᠢ
ᠰᠣᠯᠢᠶ᠎ᠠ (kei̯ soliy'a)(Inner Mongolia)
оюун мэдрэл сарних хэм (ojuun medrel sarnix xem) ᠣᠶᠤᠨ
ᠮᠡᠳᠡᠷᠡᠯ
ᠰᠠᠷᠨᠢᠬᠤ
ᠬᠡᠮ (oyun mederel sarniqu kem) (Inner Mongolia)
Navajo: bił áhátʼį́įgo tsʼindídááh
Norwegian:
Bokmål: schizofreni m
Nynorsk: schizofreni m
Oriya: ସିଜୋଫ୍ରେନିଆ (sijophrenia)
Pashto: سکیزفرینیا‎
Persian: روان‌گسیختگی‎ (fa) (ravan-gosikhtegi), اسکیزوفرنی‎ (fa) (eskizoferni), شیزوفرنی‎ (fa) (šizoferni)
Polish: schizofrenia (pl) f
Portuguese: esquizofrenia (pt) f
Punjabi: ਦੁਫਾੜ ਮਾਨਸਿਕਤਾ (duphāṛ mānsikatā)
Quechua: waq'akay
Romanian: schizofrenie (ro) f
Russian: шизофрени́я (ru) f (šizofreníja), схизофрени́я (ru) f (sxizofreníja) (obsolete)
Scottish Gaelic: sgoltadh-inntinn m, dà-urrachas m, sgiotsoifrinia f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: схизофрѐнија f (Bosnia, Croatia), шизофрѐнија f (Serbia)
Roman: shizofrènija (sh) f (Bosnia, Croatia), šizofrènija (sh) f (Serbia)
Sicilian: schizzufrinìa f
Sindhi: اسڪيزوفرنيا‎ (askezofrnyā), شيزوروفيا‎ (shezorofyā)
Sinhalese: හින්නෝන්මාදය (hinnōnmādaya), ශිශ්රෝපනය (śiśrōpanaya)
Slovak: schizofrénia (sk) f
Slovene: shizofreníja f
Somali: iskiitsofiriiniya
Spanish: esquizofrenia (es) f
Swahili: skizofrenia
Swedish: schizofreni (sv) c
Tagalog: eskisoprenya
Tajik: маҷзубият (majzubiyat)
Tamil: பிளவுபட்ட மனநோய் (piḷavupaṭṭa maṉanōy), மனப்பித்து (maṉappittu), கிசோபிரோனியா (kicōpirōṉiyā), ஸ்கிசோஃப்ரினியா (skicōfriṉiyā)
Tatar: шизофрения f (şizofreniya)
Telugu: స్కిజోఫ్రీనియా (skijōphrīniyā)
Thai: โรคจิตเภท (rook-jit-dta-payt)
Turkish: şizofreni (tr), usyarılım (tr) (rare)
Ukrainian: шизофрені́я f (šyzofreníja)
Urdu: انفصام‎ (infiṣāmu), شیزوفرینیا‎ (šizofrenyā)
Uzbek: shizofreniya (uz)
Veps: šizofrenii
Vietnamese: tâm thần phân liệt
Waray-Waray: eskisofrenya
Welsh: sgitsoffrenia f
Yiddish: סכיזאָפֿרעניע‎ f (skhizofrenye)
Yoruba: rudurudu ti ọpọlọ
Zulu: bayasangana

informal: condition in which disparate activities coexist

Finnish: jakomielinen tilanne
German: Schizophrenie (de) f
Greek: σχιζοφρένεια (el) f (schizofréneia)
Polish: schizofrenia (pl) f, schiza (pl) f
Portuguese: esquizofrenia (pt) f

References

schizophrenia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “schizophrenia”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.“schizophrenia”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.