catalepsy
(ˈkætəlɛpsɪ)
Also 4–6 -lempsie, -lencie.
[ad. med.L. catalēpsia, f. Gr. κατάληψις a seizing upon (see next); the L. form catalēpsis was formerly in common use. In F. catalepsie.]
1. Med. A disease characterized by a seizure or trance, lasting for hours or days, with suspension of sensation and consciousness.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. x. (1495) 229 There ben thre manere of Epilency..Epilencia..Analempsia..Cathalempsia. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health lxiv. 27 b, The Catalency which is one of the kyndes of the fallynge sickenes. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 200 Apoplexies, Catalepsies, and Coma's. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 366 There is a Disease of the same kind call'd a Catalepsis. 1866 A. Flint Princ. Med. (1880) 839 Catalepsy..is evidently allied to one of the forms of hysteria. |
2. Philos. Comprehension, apprehension.
| [1580 North Plutarch (1676) 446 The old Academicks..hold, that a man may certainly know and comprehend something, and called that Catalepsin.] 1656 Blount Glossogr., Catalepsie, occupation, deprehension, knowledge. 1847 Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) I. 365 The doctrine of Acatalepsy recalls to us the Stoical doctrine of Catalepsy, or Apprehension. |