Asemia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A loss of the ability to communicate meaning through gestures, signs or facial expressions, while speech may remain intact
2. A neurological condition in which a person cannot convey or grasp ideas through body language or symbolic movements
3. The impairment of nonverbal communication, where gestures and signs no longer carry or receive intended meaning

Etymology: Asemia is built from Greek parts: the privative prefix "a-", meaning "without," and "sēma," meaning "sign." Its sense is therefore "lack of signs," and in modern medicine it names the loss of the ability to express meaning through gesture, even when the person can still understand others. The root "sēma" is the source of several familiar English words. "Semantic," "semaphore," and "semiotics" all descend from it, and each keeps the core idea of meaning conveyed through a sign. Asemia is a technical coinage from those classical roots, not a term used by ancient Greeks, and it belongs to the vocabulary of neurology and speech pathology.