Monday, April 16, 2007

aphasiac


Everyone knows what to call the lack of sight, hearing or speech. But I've long wondered what to call the lack of ability to either smell, taste, or to feel objects.

Thanks to OneLook, I now know that:
hyposmia is a "lessened sensitivity to odors."

anosmia is the "absence or loss of the sense of smell."

hypogeusia is a "decreased sensitivity to taste."

ageusia is the "loss or impairment of the sense of taste."

anaphia is the "total or partial absence of the sense of touch."

Now just to commit those words to my vernacular, so that they roll off my tongue with the same smoothness that I have for expressing blindness, deafness and muteness.

1 comment:

bkmarcus said...

So why is a decreased sense of touch called hypoesthia? And shouldn't a complete lack of the touch-sense be anesthia? What in the heck is anesthesia?