anhedonia

English

WOTD – 18 July 2008

Etymology

From French anhédonie (coined by Ribot, 1896), from Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-) + ἡδονή (hēdonḗ, “pleasure”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌan.hɪˈdəʊ.nɪə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæn.hiˈdoʊ.ni.ə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

anhedonia (usually uncountable, plural anhedonias)

1. (medicine, psychiatry) The inability to feel pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable, such as exercise, hobbies, music, sexual activities or social interactions.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society 2008, p. 123:

     Sometimes it is mere passive joylessness and dreariness, discouragement, dejection, lack of taste and zest and spring. Professor Ribot has proposed the name anhedonia to designate this condition.

Derived terms

• anhedonic
• anhedonism

Translations

inability to feel pleasure

• Czech: anhedonie f
• Dutch: anhedonie (nl)
• French: anhédonie (fr) f
• Italian: anedonia (it) f
• Polish: anhedonia (pl) f

• Portuguese: anedonia f
• Russian: ангедония (ru) f (angedonija)
• Spanish: anhedonia (es) f
• Swedish: anhedoni (sv) c

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Polish

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

anhedonia f

1. (medicine, psychiatry) anhedonia

Declension

declension of anhedonia

	singular
nominative	anhedonia
genitive	anhedonii
dative	anhedonii
accusative	anhedonię
instrumental	anhedonią
locative	anhedonii
vocative	anhedonio

Further reading

• anhedonia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Spanish

Noun

anhedonia f (plural anhedonias)

1. (medicine, psychiatry) anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure)