epilepsy

English

Etymology

Since 16th century; borrowed from French épilepsie, from Latin epilēpsia, from Ancient Greek ἐπιληψία (epilēpsía), from ἐπιλαμβάνω (epilambánō, “I seize”), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛpɪlɛpsi/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Hyphenation: ep‧i‧lep‧sy

Noun

epilepsy (countable and uncountable, plural epilepsies)

1. (pathology) A medical condition in which the sufferer experiences seizures (or convulsions) and blackouts.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     Epilepsies, or fallings and reelings, and beastly vomitings. The least of these, even when the tongue begins to be untied, is a degree of drunkenness.

Derived terms

• epileptic
• epileptiform

Translations

medical condition

• Arabic: صَرْع‎ m (ṣarʿ)
• Armenian: ընկնավորություն (hy) (ənknavorutʿyun)
• Assamese: আঁৱৰি (ãori)
• Asturian: epilepsia f
• Bengali: মৃগীরোগ (mrigirog)
• Catalan: epilèpsia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 羊癲瘋, 羊癫疯 (yángdiānfēng), 癲癇 (zh), 癫痫 (zh) (diānxián), 癲癇癥, 癫痫症 (diānxiánzhèng), 羊癇, 羊痫 (yángxián), 羊癇瘋, 羊痫疯 (yángxiánfēng), 羊角風 (zh), 羊角风 (zh) (yángjiǎofēng)

• Czech: epilepsie (cs) f
• Danish: epilepsi c
• Esperanto: epilepsio
• Estonian: epilepsia (et), langetõbi (et)
• Finnish: epilepsia (fi)
• French: épilepsie (fr) f
• Galician: epilepsia f, gota (gl) f
• German: Epilepsie (de) f; (archaic) Fallsucht (de) f
• Greek: επιληψία (el) f (epilipsía)

  Ancient: ἐπιληψία f (epilēpsía)

• Hindi: अपस्मार (hi) m (apasmār), मिर्गी (hi) f (mirgī)
• Hungarian: epilepszia (hu)
• Icelandic: flogaveiki (is) f, flog (is) n, niðurfallssýki f
• Ido: epilepsio (io)
• Igbo: ájụ̀
• Irish: titimeas m, an bhreoiteacht mhór f, galar titimeach m, galar Póil m, galar talmhaí m, an tinneas beannaithe m, an tinneas mór m, tinneas Póil m, tinneas talún m
• Italian: epilessia (it) f
• Japanese: 癲癇 (てんかん, tenkan)
• Javanese: ꦲꦪꦤ꧀ (jv) (ayan)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: فێ‎ (ku) (fê)

• Latin: epilēpsia f
• Malay: epilepsi, gila babi, sawan
• Maori: hukihuki, hūkiki, mate hukihuki
• Nogai: талма (talma)
• Norman: épilepsie f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: epilepsi m

  Nynorsk: epilepsi m

• Old English: fiellesēocnes f
• Oriya: ଅପସ୍ମାର (or) (ôpôsmarô)
• Persian: صرع‎ (fa) (sar)
• Plautdietsch: Aunstoot
• Polish: padaczka (pl) f, epilepsja (pl) f
• Portuguese: epilepsia (pt) f
• Russian: эпиле́псия (ru) f (epilépsija), паду́чая (ru) f (padúčaja) (obsolete)
• Sanskrit: अपस्मार (sa) m (apasmāra)
• Scottish Gaelic: tuiteamas m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: епилѐпсија f, па̏давица f

  Roman: epilèpsija (sh) f, pȁdavica (sh) f

• Spanish: epilepsia (es) f
• Swahili: kifafa (sw)
• Swedish: epilepsi (sv) c
• Tagalog: kisay, gotakural
• Thai: ลมชัก (lom-chák), ลมบ้าหมู (lom-bâa-mǔu)
• Turkish: sara (tr), epilepsi (tr)
• Vietnamese: động kinh
• Volapük: peiläp (vo)
• Westrobothnian: bratfall n

See also

• falling sickness
• grand mal
• petit mal