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spastic

/ˈspastɪk/ noun

Latin root: spasticus Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about spastic at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. A person suffering from spastic paralysis.

adjective

  1. Relating to or characterized by spasm.
    a spastic colon
  2. Suffering from spastic paralysis.
    a spastic child
  3. Affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; resembling a spasm.
    convulsive motions

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin spasticus, from Ancient Greek σπαστικός (spastikós, “drawing in”). By surface analysis, spasm + -tic. Cf. French spastique and see also spasm.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)