amentia

[ey-men-shuh, uh-men-]

noun

Psychiatry.

1. (no longer in technical use) intellectual disability.

amentia

/ əˈmɛnʃə /

noun

1. severe mental deficiency, usually congenital Compare dementia

Word History and Origins

Origin of amentia¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin, equivalent to āment- ( ament ² ) + -ia noun suffix ( -ia )

Word History and Origins

Origin of amentia¹

C14: from Latin: insanity, from āmēns mad, from mēns mind

Example Sentences

The former are labouring under dementia, not amentia.

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Illegitimacy is, however, the larger problem in rural amentia.

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Cretinism is a form of amentia, which is endemic in certain districts, especially in some of the valleys of Switzerland, Savoy, and France.

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Binswanger states that tuberculosis, aside from miliary tuberculosis or meningitis, produces no mental disorder except phenomena of the amentia of exhaustion.

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In dementia the mental aberration does not occur until the mind has become fully developed, thus differing from amentia, which is congenital or comes on very early in life.

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Related Words

• cognitive impairment 
• debilitation 
• impairment 
• incapacitation 
• intellectual disability 
• limitation 
• restriction