prelinguallyadv.
/ˌpriːˈlɪŋɡwəli/, U.S. /ˌpriˈlɪŋɡwəli/ From the time before an individual learns how to speak. Frequently in prelingually deaf.
ΚΠ
1961 Jrnl. Negro Educ. 30 28/1 If the master of Keilhau was correct, his tools for children were sufficiently indeterminate to throw the child back onto pre-lingually developed resources.
1963 Washington Post 31 July a3/2 They are, in the parlance of their teachers, ‘prelingually deaf’.
2001 Nature 11 Jan. 149/3 When metabolism in the auditory cortex of prelingually deaf children (whose hearing was lost before they learned to talk) has been restored by cross-modal plasticity, the auditory cortex can no longer respond to signals from a cochlear implant installed afterwards.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.1961