Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A condition characterized by lack of response to external stimuli and by muscular rigidity, so that the limbs remain in whatever position they are placed. It is known to occur in a variety of physical and psychological disorders, such as epilepsy and schizophrenia, and can be induced by hypnosis.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An affection, generally connected with hysteria, characterized by attacks resembling hysterical coma, with a peculiar muscular rigidity of the limbs; a similar abnormal state produced artificially in the healthy body in certain mesmeric states.
Wiktionary
- n. severe bodily condition, described in psychiatric pathology, marked by sudden rigidity, fixation of posture, and loss of contact with environmental conditions
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A sudden suspension of sensation and volition, the body and limbs preserving the position that may be given them, while the action of the heart and lungs continues.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a trancelike state with loss of voluntary motion and failure to react to stimuli
Etymologies
- Middle English catalempsi, from Late Latin catalēmpsia, from Greek katalēpsis, from katalambanein, to seize upon : kata-, intensive pref.; see cata- + lambanein, lēp-, to seize.
Examples
“For several years I had been subject to attacks of the singular disorder which physicians have agreed to term catalepsy, in default of a more definitive title.”
“He noted that during one phase of hypnotism, known as catalepsy, the arms, limbs, etc., might be placed in any position and would remain there; he also noted that a puff of breath would usually awaken a subject, and that by talking to a subject and telling him to do this or do that, even after he awakes from the sleep, he can be made to do those things.”
“If a solar spectrum is suddenly brought into a dark room it may produce catalepsy, which is also produced by looking at the sun, or a lime light, or an electric light.”
“Auntie's piety was not of the niggerish kind, even Zoe, "The Octoroon," or any other woman or man in whose veins courses the blood of Ham four times diluted, knows that I mean it was not that glory-hallelujah variety of cunning or delusion, compounded of laziness and catalepsy, which is popular among the shouting, shirt-tearing sects of plantation darkies, who "git relijin" and fits twelve times a year.”
“It acts in a peculiar manner upon the nervous centers, occasioning that strange condition of the nervous system called catalepsy, in which the limbs of the unconscious patient remain stationary in whatever position they may be placed.”
Hygienic Physiology : with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics
“It can only have been the condition that is called catalepsy," said Challenger.”
The Poison Belt: Being an Account of Another Amazing Adventure of Professor Challenger
“It can only have been the condition that is called catalepsy,' said Challenger.”
The Poison Belt
“If it is catalepsy he is suffering from, then it is a kind of catalepsy I never heard of.”
“On her fifth hypnotisation, however, Lucie underwent a kind of catalepsy, after which she returned to the somnambulic state; but that state was deeper than before.”
“The magicians of Egypt in modern times have been long celebrated adepts in charming serpents, and particularly by pressing the nape of the neck, they throw them into a kind of catalepsy, which renders them stiff and immovable -- thus seeming to change them into a rod.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘catalepsy’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cata-, cat-, kata-
down(ward), wrongly or badly, completely, against
catadromous, catastrophe, katabatic, catachresis, cataclysm, catapult, catatonic, catatonia, catawampus, catalyst, catabolic, catabolism and 24 more...
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-lepsia
fit; attack; seizure
Note: -lepsis, -lepsy, lepti-, -lepticEpilepsia, catalepsis, catalepsy, epileptiform, narcoleptic, narcolepsy
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