hebephrenia

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἥβη (hḗbē, “youthful beauty”) (also Ἥβη (Hḗbē, “the goddess Hebe”)) + φρήν (phrḗn, “mind”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hiːbɪˈfɹiːnɪə/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Noun

hebephrenia (countable and uncountable, plural hebephrenias)

  1. (clinical psychology) A form of schizophrenia characterized by inappropriate behavior and emotional responses.
    • 1937, Malcolm Lowry, Prelude To Mammon:
      Sir: drinking is a problem without doubt: / Whether or not we like it, whether or not / The goddamn thing will put you on the spot / With heebiejeebies hebephrene or gout: / Or lumbago will set you tapping out / On brass ferrule to stool, to rest, to rot.
  2. (obsolete) A type of mental disorder occurring during puberty characterized by silly behavior and inappropriate laughter.

Derived terms

Translations

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.