spasmodic

English edit

WOTD – 22 July 2010

From New Latin spasmōdicus, from Ancient Greek σπασμώδης (spasmṓdēs, “spasmodic”), from σπασμός (spasmós, “spasm”).

spasmodic (comparative more spasmodic, superlative most spasmodic)

Of or relating to a spasm; resembling a sudden contraction of the muscles.
Convulsive; consisting of spasms.
spasmodic asthma
- 1734, T[homas] K[night], A Critical Dissertation upon the Manner of the Preparation of Mercurial Medicines, and Their Operation on Human Bodies; particularly Those Most in Fashion: […], London: Printed for Harmen Noorthouck […], →OCLC, page 52:
  […] Dr. Francis Fuller, […] upon wearing a Quick-ſilver Girdle, for the Cure of the Itch, (and that after an inconſiderate and raſh manner) was brought under a violent Spaſmodick Diſtemper, which was ſupposed by himſelf and others to be owing to ſome Mercurial Particles lodg'd in ſome excretory Ducts of the Brain.
Intermittent or fitful; occurring in abrupt bursts.
Synonyms: patchy, stop-start; see also Thesaurus:discontinuous

spasmodic zeal or industry
- 1900 April, Willa Cather, “Eric Hermannson's Soul”, in Cosmopolitan:
  The chin was heavy, the nostrils were low and wide, and the lower lip hung loosely except in his moments of spasmodic earnestness, when it shut like a steel trap.
Erratic or unsustained.
Of or relating to the spasmodic poets, a group of British Victorian poets who wrote introspective drama in verse.

of or relating to a spasm

convulsive; consisting of spasms

intermittent or fitful; occurring in short bursts

erratic or unsustained

spasmodic (plural spasmodics)

spasmodic m or n (feminine singular spasmodică, masculine plural spasmodici, feminine and neuter plural spasmodice)

Declension of spasmodic