logorrhoea

A patient with logorrhoea speaks rapidly and continuously during a therapy session.

Definition

1. Noun (uncountable):
   • Pathological talkativeness: "logorrhoea" refers to an excessive, often uncontrollable flow of speech, typically associated with certain medical or psychiatric conditions (e.g., mania, schizophrenia, or brain injury). It is characterized by rapid, continuous, and sometimes incoherent verbal output.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The patient’s logorrhoea made it difficult for the doctor to obtain a coherent medical history. (The patient’s excessive, uncontrollable talking hindered communication.)
  • During a manic episode, logorrhoea can be one of the most prominent symptoms. (Excessive speech is a key feature of mania.)

Advanced Usage

• "suffering from logorrhoea": experiencing an abnormal, compulsive urge to speak.

  • After the stroke, he developed logorrhoea, often speaking for hours without pause. (He exhibited pathological talkativeness as a result of brain damage.)

• "logorrhoea in literature": a deliberate, excessive use of words in writing, sometimes for stylistic effect.

  • The author’s logorrhoea in that chapter overwhelmed the reader with unnecessary detail. (The writer used an excessive amount of words.)

Variants and Related Words

• Logorrhoeic (adj): relating to or characterized by logorrhoea.

  • The logorrhoeic patient could not stop talking, even when asked to be quiet. (The patient exhibited excessive speech.)

• Logorrhea (n): American English spelling of "logorrhoea".

  • The doctor noted the patient’s logorrhea as a sign of acute mania. (Same meaning, different spelling.)

Synonyms

• Talkativeness: the tendency to talk a lot.
• Verbosity: the quality of using more words than needed.
• Garrulousness: excessive talkativeness, especially about trivial matters.
• Glossolalia: often used for incoherent or ecstatic speech, but can overlap in pathological contexts.

Related Idioms

• "To talk a blue streak": to speak very rapidly and continuously.

  • He was talking a blue streak, showing signs of logorrhoea. (He spoke without stopping, similar to pathological talkativeness.)

• "To be a chatterbox": informal term for someone who talks excessively.

  • The child’s logorrhoea earned him the nickname "chatterbox". (His excessive talking was like a chatterbox’s behavior.)

Medical Note

"Logorrhoea" is not a common term in everyday English; it is primarily used in medical, psychiatric, or academic contexts. It is derived from Greek "logos" (word) and "rhein" (to flow), literally meaning "word flow."