dementia praecox

[ dih-men-shuh pree-koks ]

noun

, Psychiatry.

1. (no longer in technical use) schizophrenia.

dementia praecox

/ ˈpriːkɒks /

noun

1. a former name for schizophrenia

Word History and Origins

Origin of dementia praecox¹

First recorded in 1895–1900; from New Latin: “precocious dementia”

Word History and Origins

Origin of dementia praecox¹

C19: New Latin, literally: premature dementia

Example Sentences

Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugen Bleuler introduced schizophrenia, often considered the “most troubling” form of madness, as a medical classification in 1908 to replace the label “dementia praecox,” meaning the incurable madness of young people.

From Slate

Near the end, Beauman admits the 400-page story “passes from the merely cockamamie into night-blooming dementia praecox.”

From New York Times

The cause of her death, not revealed in the note or in her obituary in the Daily Press, was entered on her death certificate as “dementia praecox.”

From Literature

Aged 57, this man was diagnosed dementia praecox, paranoid, onset “more than 10 years ago.”

From The New Yorker

Emil Kraepelin was the fin-de-siècle German psychiatrist who launched the fashion for descriptive psychopathology and first made the distinction between dementia praecox and manic-depressive illness.

From Salon