Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Autism
/ˈɔːtɪzəm/noun
A developmental condition affecting social communication, sensory processing and patterns of interest.
The Greek roots
αὐτός
autós
self
-ισμός
-ismós
condition, state
Literally: “state of the self”
The story of the word
Eugen Bleuler built Autismus around 1910 from αὐτός to describe the turn inward he observed in schizophrenia; it was a symptom name, not a diagnosis. Leo Kanner took the term in 1943 for something quite different, the developmental condition it now names, and Bleuler's sense faded out of use. αὐτός is quietly busy elsewhere in English: automatic, autonomy, autograph, autopsy.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage (German) → English
- First recorded
- 1912
Same family
automaticautonomyautographautopsy
In a sentence
Her autism was identified at thirty-one, after both of her children were assessed.