Tourette, n.2 Path.
(tʊəˈrɛt)
[The name of G. Gilles de la Tourette (1857–1904), French neurologist.]
Used attrib. and in the possessive (esp. in Tourette('s) syndrome) to designate a neurological disorder characterized by tics, involuntary vocalization, and the compulsive utterance of obscenities. Also ellipt. as Tourette('s).
| [1886 Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis. XIII. 407 (title) On convulsive tic with explosive disturbances of speech (so-called Gilles de la Tourette's disease).] 1899 Syd. Soc. Lex., Tourette's disease, motor incoordination with echolalia and coprolalia. A convulsive form of tic. 1940 S. A. K. Wilson Neurology II. xcii. 1632 Tourette's disease has certain affinities with the no less curious lâtah of the Malays. 1973 Psychosomatic Med. XXXV. 423/2 If the tics spread or progress, chemotherapy for Tourette's syndrome should be considered. 1978 A. K. Shapiro et al. Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome 409 His son had been diagnosed as a Tourette patient. 1981 London Rev. Bks. 19 Mar. 3/1 The forgetting of sleepy-sickness (encephalitis lethargica) and the forgetting of Tourette's have much in common. 1996 Guardian 8 Nov. (Friday Rev. section) 26/4 ‘Tourette's has a wanton force,’ said Sacks astutely. ‘It impels Shane towards both brilliance and destructiveness.’ |
Hence Touˈrettism n., behaviour typical of Tourette's syndrome.
| 1981 London Rev. Bks. 19 Mar. 3/1, I started to speak of ‘Tourettism’, although I had never seen a patient with Tourette's. 1988 Jrnl. Geriatric Psychiatry & Neurol. I. 169/1 Acquired Tourettism is a syndrome consisting of multiple tics, both motor and vocal. |