dementia praecox
1
9.9
- noun
- /dɪˈmɛnʃə prɛˈkoʊks/
- Archaic
:
demencia praecox
- She suffers from something called dementia praecox.
Examples
-
The patient was diagnosed with dementia praecox, which affected his ability to think clearly.
-
You say that your niece suffers from dementia praecox.
-
From dementia praecox?
-
Many mental health professionals used to refer to schizophrenia as dementia praecox due to its symptoms.
-
In the early 20th century, dementia praecox was a common term for severe mental disorders like schizophrenia.
Synonyms
67
8.7
A serious mental illness that makes people lose touch with reality, for example hearing things that are not real
1
9.9
A serious mental illness where a person loses touch with reality and talks or thinks in a confused way
1
8.1
A serious mental illness that makes people lose contact with reality and withdraw from others
How Severe
- Archaic
1
9.9
- Specialized
- Specialized
40
3.4
11
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
dementia + praecox
This is a Latin medical label whose second element 'praecox' is not a common English word and would be unknown to a B1 learner; even if 'praecox' were glossed as 'early', a literal reading would yield 'early dementia', which does not match the term's historical/clinical use for psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. Because the form is technical, archaic and has undergone semantic shift, its overall meaning cannot be reliably derived from its parts by a typical B1 learner.
Etymology
Dementia praecox comes from Latin words used by early doctors: dementia means 'loss of mind' and praecox means 'early' or 'too soon'. Doctors used this name for people whose thinking and feelings broke down at a young age, so the phrase gives the image of an 'early loss of mind' and is now an old word for what we usually call 'schizophrenia'.