epileptic

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French épileptique (“affected with epilepsy”) (1504),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Late Latin epilēpticus (“having epilepsy”) (4th century),^[2][4][7] from Ancient Greek ἐπιληπτικός (epilēptikós, “having epilepsy”),^[2][4][6] from ἐπίληπτος (epílēptos, “caught or detected; having epilepsy”) and the suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[2][5][6] The Greek adjective is formed from ἐπι- (epi-) and the base of λαμβάνω (lambánō, “to take”), after ἐπιλαμβάνω (epilambánō, “to lay hold of, seize, attack”).^[2][3] It is related to epilepsy.^[3][4] English earlier had the adjective epilentic, from the late 14th century, from a variant form.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Affected with epilepsy: 1572, in John Jones's Bathes of Bathes Ayde, in the OED's revised entry.^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to about 1600,^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1605,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English to the early 17th century.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was used of people with epilepsy, and after 1603 also of the condition itself and its attacks, as in epileptic fit and later epileptic seizure.^[2] From 1608, in Shakespeare's King Lear, it was used figuratively of jerky, convulsive or wildly erratic movement or sound,^[2][5] and in the early 17th century it could describe a medicine against epilepsy.^[2] As a noun it first meant epilepsy or a fit of it (1596), a use rare after the 17th century; the sense "a person with epilepsy" followed in 1605,^[2] although Etymonline dates the noun only to the 1650s.^[3] From 1661 to 1783 the noun also named a remedy for epilepsy.^[2]

Timeline

• 1572 – affected with epilepsy.^[2]
• 1596 – noun, epilepsy, or an epileptic fit (rare after the 17th century).^[2]
• 1603 – of or relating to epilepsy, as in epileptic fit.^[2]
• 1605 – noun, a person with epilepsy.^[2] Etymonline dates the noun to the 1650s.^[3]
• 1608 – figuratively, jerky, convulsive or erratic, in Shakespeare's King Lear.^[2]
• 1609 – of a medicine, used against epilepsy.^[2]
• 1661 – noun, a remedy for epilepsy (obsolete by 1783).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or caused by epilepsy: an epileptic seizure.^[2][5][10]
2. Having epilepsy.^[10][5][2]
3. Jerky, convulsive or wildly erratic, as if in a fit.^[5][2]

Noun

1. A person who has epilepsy.^[10][5][2]

Word family

• epileptically
• epileptoid
• nonepileptic
• postepileptic

Related words

• epilepsy
• lemma

Usage notes

Collins advises speaking of "a person with epilepsy" or "people with epilepsy" rather than of "an epileptic" or "epileptics".^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins