aphasia

plural aphasias · alternative dated aphasy

1. countableuncountablemedicineA 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.

   The Doctor came over in three minutes, and heard the story. ‘It's aphasia,’ he said.

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 76

   3 more examples

   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, “Discussions upon Aphasia”, in Medical and Surgical Reporter, volume 8, page 197

   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."

   1865, J. T. Banks, “On the Loss of Language in Cerebral Disease”, in Dublin quarterly journal of medical science, volume 39, page 63

   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.

   2022 March 30, Maya Salam, “Bruce Willis Has Aphasia and Is ‘Stepping Away’ From His Career”, in The New York Times, →ISSN