Etymology

spastic

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Today it means: Of, relating to, or affected by spasm. Full definition →

Latin spasticus ← Ancient Greek σπαστικός
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromσπαστικός“drawing in”
  2. Latin · learned borrowing fromspasticus
  3. English todayspastic

Learned borrowing from Latin spasticus, from Ancient Greek σπαστικός (spastikós, “drawing in”). By surface analysis, spasm + -tic. Cf. French spastique and see also spasm.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.