Also 4–6 -lempsie, -lencie. [ad. med.L. catalēpsia, f. Gr. κατάληψις a seizing upon (see next); the L. form catalēpsis was formerly in common use. In F. catalepsie.]
1. Med. A disease characterized by a seizure or trance, lasting for hours or days, with suspension of sensation and consciousness.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. x. (1495), 229. There ben thre manere of Epilency … Epilencia … Analempsia … Cathalempsia.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, lxiv. 27 b. The Catalency which is one of the kyndes of the fallynge sickenes.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 200. Apoplexies, Catalepsies, and Coma’s.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 366. There is a Disease of the same Kind … call’d a Catalepsis.
1866. A. Flint, Princ. Med. (1880), 839. Catalepsy … is evidently allied to one of the forms of hysteria.
2. Philos. Comprehension, apprehension.
[1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 446. The old ACADEMICKS … hold, that a man may certainly know and comprehend something, and called that Catalepsin.]
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Catalepsie, occupation, deprehension, knowledge.
1847. Lewes, Hist. Philos. (1867), I. 365. The doctrine of Acatalepsy recalls to us the Stoical doctrine of Catalepsy, or Apprehension.
