Dictionary

hebetude en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈhɛb.ə.tjuːd/ (US)
• /ˈhɛb.ə.tuːd/ (US)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈhɛb.ə.tjuːd/ (UK)

Etymology

From Late Latin hebetūdō.

Meanings

1. (uncommon, uncountable) Mental lethargy or dullness.
   • By 1851, Cartwright had also discovered and described a host of imaginary "black" diseases [...] Hebetude was a singular laziness or shiftlessness that caused slaves to mishandle or abuse their owners' property. 2008, Harriet A. Washington, “Southern Discomfort”, in Medical Apartheid, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 52:
   • Hirsch, with his arms tied behind his back, had been bundled violently into one of the smaller rooms. For many hours he remained apparently forgotten, stretched lifelessly on the floor. From that solitude, full of despair and terror, he was torn out brutally, with kicks and blows, passive, sunk in hebetude. 1904, Joseph Conrad, chapter 9, in Nostromo:
   • Incuriousness was the most potent ally of our imposed order; for Eastern government rested not so much on consent or force, as on the common supinity, hebetude, lack-a-daisiness, which gave a minority undue effect. 1926, T. E. Lawrence, chapter 84, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Dell, published 1962, page 471:
   • 1985, Oliver Sacks, “The Lost Mariner”, chapter 2 in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Reset 2007 edition), page 33, footnote 2, This dwelling on the past and relative hebetude towards the present – this emotional dulling of current feeling and memory – is nothing like Jimmie’s organic amnesia.
   • It would be a supposition attended with very little probability, to believe that a complete and full formed spirit existed in every infant; but that it was clogged and impeded in its operations, during the first twenty years of life, by the weakness, or hebetude, of the organs in which it was enclosed. 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus, chapter 8, in An Essay on the Principle of Population, London: J. Johnson, pages 354–355:
   • 1600, translation attributed to Thomas Nashe, The Hospitall of Incurable Fooles by Tomaso Garzoni, London: Edward Blount, Discourse 6, pp. 32-33, The intemperature of the braine is the cause of al this (as phisitions affirme) which maketh all the officiall, and functiue parts full of heauines and indisposition, and so through this hebetude (to vse their terme) vnapt to keepe in minde any thing.
   • [T]here are ſeveral Species of Writing, in which a proper Degree of Hebetude is abſolutely neceſſary, as well as in other profeſſions; such as Lexicography, Index-making, and the like; [...] 1735 March 4, “Craftsman, Feb. 22 [Julian calendar]. Nº 451.”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume V, London: […] Edward Cave, […], published February 1735, →OCLC, page 85, column 1:

Antonyms

mind · brightness · cleverness · sharpness · acuity · intellect · nous · judgment · brain · intelligence · esprit · psyche · head · reason · wit · smartness · brains · brightness · smarts

Deriveds

hebetudinous

Relateds

hebetate

Synonyms

dimwittedness · dimness · dullwittedness

Translations (19)

es embrutecimento (mental lethargy or dullness) · bg слабоумие (mental lethargy or dullness) · es entorpecimiento (mental lethargy or dullness) · es alelamiento (mental lethargy or dullness) · bg летаргия (mental lethargy or dullness) · cs tupost (mental lethargy or dullness) · es embotamiento (mental lethargy or dullness) · cs netečnost (mental lethargy or dullness) · fr hébétude (mental lethargy or dullness) · pl ogłupienie (mental lethargy or dullness) · it ebetudine (mental lethargy or dullness) · ru ту́пость (mental lethargy or dullness) · fi tylsämielisyys (mental lethargy or dullness) · cs otupení (mental lethargy or dullness) · ru тупоумие (mental lethargy or dullness) · cs letargie (mental lethargy or dullness) · fr abêtissement (mental lethargy or dullness) · fr abrutissement (mental lethargy or dullness) · it abbrutimento (mental lethargy or dullness)