Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Anhedonia
/ˌænhiːˈdoʊniə/noun
The loss of the ability to feel pleasure in things that were once enjoyable.
The Greek roots
ἀν-
an-
without
ἡδονή
hēdonḗ
pleasure
Literally: “without pleasure”
The story of the word
Théodule Ribot coined anhédonie in 1896 by symmetry: if there is analgesia for the absence of pain, there should be a word for the absence of pleasure. It now sits in the diagnostic criteria for depression, and researchers split it in two, the pleasure you fail to anticipate and the pleasure you fail to feel when the thing arrives. ἡδονή also gives hedonism, a label the Epicureans would have disputed, since their pleasure was mainly the absence of pain.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
hedonismhedonicanesthesia
In a sentence
He described the anhedonia first: food tasted of nothing and music did nothing.
Anhedonia often outlasts the low mood by months.