Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Logorrhea
/ˌlɒɡəˈriːə/noun
Excessive, uncontrollable talking.
The Greek roots
λόγος
lógos
word, speech
ῥοία
rhoía
a flowing
Literally: “word flow”
The story of the word
Coined on the model of diarrhoea, and meaning exactly what that parallel suggests. Clinicians use it for the pressured speech of mania and for certain aphasias in which fluency survives intact while sense does not. The λόγος half is the same word behind logic, dialogue and the opening line of John's gospel, which gives the joke its range.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- early 20th century
Same family
diarrhoeacatarrhrheumatismlogic
In a sentence
The chairman's logorrhea added forty minutes to every meeting.
In fluent aphasia the logorrhea can sound normal until you listen to the words.