Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A pervasive developmental disorder characterized by severe deficits in social interaction and communication, by an extremely limited range of activities and interests, and often by the presence of repetitive, stereotyped behaviors.
Wiktionary
- n. clinical psychology Bio-neurological disorder that is observable in early childhood with symptoms of abnormal self-absorption, characterised by lack of response to other humans and by limited ability or disinclination to communicate and socialize.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Med.) a mental disorder characterized by inability to engage in normal social interactions and intense self-absorption, and usually accompanied by other symptoms such as language dysfunctions and repetitive behavior.
- n. behavior showing an abnormal level of absorption with one's own thoughts and disregard for external realities.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (psychiatry) an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people
Etymologies
- Coined in 1912 by Swiss psychiatrist Paul Bleuler (1857-1939) from Latin autismus, from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autos, "self"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The word 'autism' comes from the Greek word 'autos', meaning 'self'.”
“In the US, the case against thimerosal-caused autism is clearly shown by the continuing rise in autism diagnoses despite the removal of thimerosal from vaccines.”
“To me, the term autism related to Dustin Hoffman in Rainman, I had never encountered it personally in my life.”
“When I use the word "autism" -- or say to someone she has autism -- it's the best I can do in a short time period.”
“The term autism describes a neurodevelopmental disorder with a variety of symptoms and characteristics whose focus is on abnormal social relationships and interplay, difficulties with communications of both the verbal and non-verbal kind, a lack of focus in normal play and repetitive pattern behaviors.”
“When Patti Meerschaert founded the Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin in 1976, the term autism was foreign to most people with as few as four or five children in 10,000 diagnosed with the learning disorder.”
“Thats what he's saying, Parent's are using the term autism to freely, why else is there A BOOM all the sudden!”
“In the UK, the National Autistic Society criticised Mr Lellouche for using the term autism intemperately.”
“Asperger's Autism and Nonverbal Learning Disorder The term autism spectrum is still an inexact term.”
“In fact, it's becoming clear that what we call autism is a cluster of many distinct but related conditions with diverse etiologies.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘autism’.
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Headlines & Newsmakers
frugality, environment, extinction, bible, killer, jazz, cloning, dead, god, moon, global warming, bailout and 340 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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Psychology
stockholm syndrome, stereotype, ergonomics, human-computer in..., prejudice, neo-luddism, stress, trauma, psychopathology, psychotic, neurosis, depression and 180 more...
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disorder (psychological)
various psychological disorders, imbalances. supposed reasons for the mentally insane. crazy talk yo.
loosely connected to traits (bad)
( randomness, descriptive, psycho...crazy, schizophrenia, narcissism, obsessive compulsion, anxiety, attention deficit, depression, bipolar, mania, synesthesia, psychosis, autism and 12 more...
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pop ups
erstwhile, allegiance, sacked, reinstate, vengeance, affluent, sedative, maverick, caricatives, abandoned, faux pas, ambience and 245 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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Psych
dissonance, aphasia, psychotic, schizoid, schizotypal, cognition, sublimation, oedipal, self-actualization, psychoanalysis, humanist, freudian and 51 more...
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rchk's Words
zeitgeist, reglage, rchk, kalaskula, lunginflammation, reglage.net, maarn, maarnbars, iska, åstol, sömnapné, kaskelot and 40 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for autism.
glasspetalsmoke Temple Grandin has autism and it's her gift. Get inside her olfactory mind and find out how this visual thinker relates to her sense of smell. http://glasspetalsmoke.blogspot.com/2012/12/inside-olfactory-mind-of-temple-grandin.html
Feb 17, 2013