latan.adj.

1884 Western Daily Press (Bristol) 25 June 7/5 This disease has been met with in Java, where it is known as ‘Lata’.

1897 W. G. Ellis in Jrnl. Mental Sci. 42 32 (heading) Latah. A mental malady of the Malays.

1897 W. G. Ellis in Jrnl. Mental Sci. 42 33 Under the name ‘Latah’ the Malays describe a variety of peculiar nervous conditions of a transitory character.

1947 R. O. Winstedt Malays 18 There is the closest resemblance between the hysteria of the Samoyed and the latah of the Malay and Dayak.

1956 R. Linton Culture & Mental Disorders iii. 115 Latah is like Arctic hysteria in its manifestations, and involves the same compulsive imitation.

1956 R. Linton Culture & Mental Disorders iii. 115 Another interesting trait shared by both arctic hysteria and latah is that the same individuals are subject to repeated attacks.

1987 Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry 11 11 Reference has already been made to latah as a syndrome often precipitated by a startle stimulus and characterized by some or all of: echolalia, echopraxia, coprolalia and automatic obedience. We here use latah as a generic label to include similar phenomena in many cultures which often employ their own designations.

1912 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 24 Feb. 438/2 The lâtah in a state of lâtah is wholly unconscious of what he is doing.

1966 D. Forbes Heart of Malaya v. 60 Another type of latah, or madman, amongst these unstable people could be jerked into paroxysms of action by the use of a single word.

1913 Q. Rev. Jan. 135 It was also known to his shipmates that he was ‘lâtah’.

1913 Q. Rev. Jan. 135 If the stimulus in the Lâtah patient was a current of electricity..no one would think mind had anything to do with it.

1928 A. Gibson Malay Peninsula ii. 29 More interesting than the amok condition..is the predisposition in many Malays to become latah (hypnotised, entranced) on being spoken to sharply.

1966 D. Skirrow It won't get you Anywhere xiv. 63 ‘Not berserk,’ I said, ‘latah... All Malayans go latah from time to time.’