aphagian.
/əˈfeɪdʒ(ɪ)ə/, U.S. /əˈfeɪdʒ(i)ə/ 1. Medicine. Inability to swallow. Cf. dysphagia n.
ΚΠ
1845 S. Palmer Pentaglot Dict. 49/1 Aphagie, aphagia..inability to swallow,—to take food.
1858 J. Copland Dict. Pract. Med. III. ii. 988/2 The aphagia of rabies is always a fatal sign.
1880 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 Jan. 40/1 My patient applied for treatment only at considerable intervals, when his difficulty of swallowing approached absolute aphagia.
1929 A. L. Abel Œsophageal Obstruction xiii. 151 Acute symptoms may supervene, due to the impaction of too large a portion of food, causing aphagia.
1988 E. W. Wilkins in G. G. Jamieson Surg. Oesophagus xl. 368/1 The most frequent initial symptom of Schatzki's ring is an episode of acute aphagia.
2011 Gastrointestinal Endoscopy 74 222/2 Lichen [planus] usually causes long-term dysphagia and even episodes of aphagia.
2. Chiefly Physiology. Inability, failure, or refusal to eat; absence or loss of the desire or need to eat; an instance of this. Cf. adipsia n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > absence of appetite > [noun]
stomachlessness1657
aphagia1951
1951 Electroencephalogr. & Clin. Neurophysiol. 3 54/1 The animals were somnolent or comatose, showing immobility,..loss of placing reactions, aphagia, poikilothermia and loss of affective response except to intense stimulation.
1968 Physiol. & Behavior 3 1000/1 There was also a tendency for tegmental lesions to produce a transient postoperative aphagia and adipsia.
1989 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 647/1 Destruction [of the lateral hypothalamus] causes more or less prolonged noneating (aphagia).
2005 Jrnl. Exper. Biol. 208 2605/2 Connected by natural long episodes of aphagia, estivating anurans and sit-and-wait foraging snakes appear to exhibit parallel metabolic responses to fasting and feeding.
Derivatives
aˈphagic adj. affected with or exhibiting aphagia.
ΚΠ
1894 Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic 3 Mar. 231/2 A stomach-tube could be introduced without obstruction, but the patient was absolutely aphagic, and finally died.
1955 Jrnl. Physiol. 128 145 All histological sections of the aphagic animals showed bilateral destruction of the..lateral-most region of the lateral hypothalamus.
2005 Integrative & Compar. Biol. 45 1125/1 The hatchlings are aphagic and rely upon somatic energy reserves to meet their metabolic demands.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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