Festination

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An involuntary rapid shortening of stride and quickening of pace, often seen walking in people with Parkinson's disease
2. The tendency to take progressively faster and shorter steps without control, a common symptom in certain movement disorders
3. A neurological symptom characterized by an uncontrollable acceleration of walking speed due to difficulty regulating stride length

Etymology: "Festination" is a medical term for the involuntary, rapid shortening of stride that makes a person with Parkinson's disease seem to be hurrying forward faster than they intend. Its name comes from the Latin verb "festinare," meaning "to hasten," which is also the source of the English adjective "festinate," meaning hurried or precipitate. The word is built in a plain way: "festinate" plus the noun-forming suffix "-tion," which turns an action or process into a name for that process. Nothing about it is obscure once the parts are known. The suffix is the same one found in words like "creation" and "relation," and it is a standard way for English to name a condition or activity from a verb or adjective.