latah

Noun

latah (countable and uncountable, plural latahs)

1. A condition found in Malaysia and nearby areas characterised by extreme suggestibility; also, a person suffering from this malady.
   • Latah is a condition occurring in Southeast Asia. Otherwise sane, Latahs compulsively imitate every motion once their attention is attracted by snapping the fingers or calling sharply.1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press
   • It seemed to Sir Edwin that this patient, a young man who had never set foot outside England, was suffering from an ailment known as latah – common enough in the Malay archipelago but hitherto unknown, so far as the clinical records – admittedly not very reliable – could advise, in the temperate...1989, Anthony Burgess, The Devil's Mode