Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Alexia
/əˈlɛksiə/noun
Loss of the ability to read after brain injury, in someone who could read before.
The Greek roots
ἀ-
a-
without
λέξις
léxis
word, speech
Literally: “wordlessness”
The story of the word
Nineteenth-century neurology called it word blindness before reaching for Greek. In 1892 Déjerine described a patient who could still write fluently and then could not read back what he had just written, which located the damage in the pathway rather than the intelligence. The girl's name Alexia is unconnected: it comes from ἀλέξειν, to defend, the same root as Alexander.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → medical coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
dyslexialexiconhyperlexiadialect
In a sentence
The stroke left him with alexia but no other language loss.
Alexia without agraphia still surprises students the first time they see it.