Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A speech impediment characterized by stammering or stuttering usually resulting from emotional or psychological causes.
- n. The replacement of a word or phrase with a more vulgar or offensive substitute.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-, "bad") + φήμη (pheme, "speech").
Examples
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The stutterer was said to be peculiarly vulnerable to these convulsions because he possessed an underlying neuromuscular condition called dysphemia—“an inherited predisposition for the breakdown of the central mechanism that controlled speech functions.”
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What used to be known academically as dysphemia is called stammering in Great Britain and stuttering in the United States.
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Van Riper’s approach remained more or less consistent over the years; Johnson, deeply disillusioned by the failure of the cerebral dominance and dysphemia theories to prove that stuttering had an organic cause, restlessly sought other explanations, and his thinking continued to evolve.
Comments
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