Verbigeration

VERBIGERATION (from Latin verbigerare - to talk, chatter), a term introduced into psychiatric terminology by Kahlbaum and denoting the incessant, stereotypical repetition of the same words or entire phrases and turns of phrase (speech stereotypy); at times, a completely meaningless set of words or even individual syllables is repeated with the external preservation of the character of meaningful speech; in other cases, the manner of pronunciation becomes just as monotonously stereotypical as the content. It is often possible to establish that the meaningless expressions of verbigerating patients are a distortion or absurd abbreviation of a phrase that originally had meaning. Stransky, by reproducing with the phonograph the rapid, thoughtless speech of healthy people when attention is diverted, obtained results in many cases resembling V.-V., like other stereotypies, belongs to the number of catatonic (see Catatonia) phenomena and represents one of the frequently occurring features of schizophrenic speech.