anhedonic
- noun
- /ˌæn.hɪˈdoʊ.nɪk/
- Specialized
- Despite being surrounded by friends, the anhedonic woman felt isolated and detached from the joy around her.
Examples
-
Of course, what happens is you get people who are just anhedonic and who relapse because, you know, now they have even less.
-
An anhedonic person often finds no joy in activities like playing games that they used to love.
-
After years of struggle, he realized he was an anhedonic individual, unable to feel happiness in simple pleasures.
Compounds
- Specialized
A depression where a person cannot feel pleasure in usual activities
- Specialized
A period when a person cannot feel pleasure from things they usually enjoy
Surface Forms
Morphology
anhedonic = hedonic (semi-transparent) = an + hedon + ic
The sense is built transparently from the negative prefix 'an-' plus the technical adjective 'hedonic', but the specialized psychological vocabulary is not obvious to a beginner.
Etymology
Anhedonic comes from Greek parts an- meaning 'not' and hēdonē meaning 'pleasure', the same root you see in hedonist. So an anhedonic is a person who is unable to feel pleasure from activities that usually bring joy.