Presbycusis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Gradual loss of hearing in both ears that comes with advancing age and typically affects high-pitched sounds first
2. The progressive decline in the ability to hear that naturally develops as a person grows older, especially in the upper frequency range
3. A common condition of growing deafness linked to aging, in which the inner ear's sensitivity to sound slowly diminishes over the years

Etymology: Presbycusis is the medical term for the gradual loss of hearing that comes with age, and its name is built from two Greek words. The first part comes from "presbys," meaning "old man" or "elder," the same root that gives English "presbyter," a church elder. The second part is "akousis," meaning "hearing," from "akouein," "to hear." Joined together, the name literally means something like "old-age hearing," a plain description of what happens to the ear over the years. The term is a modern scientific coinage built from classical Greek roots, not a word that ancient physicians used for this condition. Writers in Greece and Rome had no single name for age-related deafness, so the term was created later by medical writers drawing on Greek vocabulary, as was common practice for technical terms in European medicine.

Synonyms: presbyacusis