Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Amusia
/əˈmjuːziə/noun
An inability to perceive or produce music, either from birth or after brain injury.
The Greek roots
ἀ-
a-
not, without
μοῦσα
moûsa
Muse, music
Literally: “without music”
The story of the word
Losing music turns out not to be the same as losing speech. The German neurologist August Knoblauch argued in 1888 that the brain treats them separately, and built the name on the model of aphasia. Congenital amusia, tone deafness proper, is commonly estimated at about four percent of people and has nothing to do with lack of practice. The μοῦσα inside it also gave us museum, a place belonging to the Muses.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1888
Same family
musicmuseumamuseaphasia
In a sentence
After the stroke he could still sing the words but not the tune, a classic amusia.