anosognosia (was: Another brilliant observation)

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jun 26, 2010, at 6:45 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> ... I'm  buffaloed by the NYT's _anosognosic_ "someone who knows
> that something is wrong, but who doesn't know what it is." It's based
> on Classical Greek, not Homeric. But, nevertheless, one expects of
> oneself...

from the Language Log version of a posting to ADS-L:

... _anosognosia_ (coined by Babinski in 1914, as French _anosognosie_), which the OED defines as 'unawareness of or failure to acknowledge one's hemiplegia or other disability.'  (It's usually the result of right brain injury of some kind.  In my partner Jacques's case, the cause was radiation.)  The word has the parts:

negative a- + noso- 'disease' + gnos-(os) 'knowledge' + -ia

.....

AZ, 5/29/07: A word for it:
 http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004549.html

i don't know where the NYT got its definition.  the word is a relatively recent medical coinage that, so far as i know, hasn't percolated into ordinary language -- useful though it would be to have a word that meant 'knowing that something is wrong, but not knowing what' (along with the accompanying adjective and the noun zero-derived from *that*, meaning someone who is anosognosic').  anosognosics, in the medical sense, specifically *don't* know that something is wrong.

Wilson, even if you parsed out noso- and gnos- (and the negative a-), you still wouldn't be sure how to put the meanings together; the thing might mean, for example, 'not knowing (much about) diseases'.

arnold

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