logorrhea

Noun

logorrhea (countable and uncountable, plural logorrheas)

1. (US, humorous, often) Excessive talkativeness.
   • These "Symbolists" are characterised by unbounded vanity and self-sufficiency; they are highly emotional; their thinking is hazy and disconnected. They suffer from "Logorrhea" or "sickly talkativeness," and are unable to perform any work which requires concentration and persistency.1894 October 12, “Literary Degeneration”, in Public Opinion […], volume LXVI, number 1,725, London: […] Spottiswoode & Co., […], →OCLC, page 460, column 1
   • [Jacques] Rivette, bluntly, suffers from a good case of logorrhea. Even if he had none of these rationales, he would still make long films. In interviews he speaks in endless, ebullient sentences that surround their subjects like spider's webs and sometimes suffocate them.1976, James Monaco, “Rivette: The Process of Narrative”, in The New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, footnote, page 312

   Synonyms:

   garrulousness, loquaciousness, chattiness, diarrhea of the mouth, garrulity, logorrhoea, loquacity, multiloquence, talkativeness, talkativity

   Antonyms:

   reticence, taciturnity

2. (US, humorous, often) Excessive use of words in writing; prolixity.
   • The writer should endeavor to have his observations first of all, exact, then apposite, and finally as brief as the nature of the case will admit. [...] Logorrhea and irrelevancy are the bane of a society.1878 April, “Editorial. Local Medical Societies.”, in W. C. Chapman, Thomas Waddel, editors, The Toledo Medical and Surgical Journal, volume II, number 4, Toledo, Oh.: Medical Press Association...
   • So when I settled down that day I wrote feverishly and I wrote joyously. I wrote until my fingers were cramped and my head was empty. I surrendered to a blithe logorrhea that left me contentedly limp and lax and in need of an hour or two of open air.1919, Arthur Stringer, “The Nile-green Roadster”, in The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, →OCLC, page 317

   Synonyms:

   ambages, circumlocution, logorrhoea, long-windedness, overwordiness, periphrase, periphrasis, perissology, prolixity, verboseness

   Antonyms:

   brevity, briefness, conciseness, concision, laconicalness, laconicism, laconicity, laconism, succinctness, terseness

3. (US) Excessive and often uncontrollable speaking due to a mental disorder.
   • But, then, these persons have not only a copia verborum as to knowledge, but a volubility sometimes amounting to a logorrhœa in expressing what they know—although that may not be much.1874 April, Thomas Laycock, “Article I.—On Certain Organic Disorders and Defects of Memory.”, in Edinburgh Medical Journal, […], volume XIX, part II, number X, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, […]...
   • When the patient was admitted to this hospital five years ago, the symptoms of excitement in the wide sense, violence, aggressiveness, destructiveness, logorrhœa, were in the foreground as they had been during the previous attacks.1906 April, Clarence B[ynold] Farrar, “Clinical Demonstrations”, in Henry M. Hurd et al., editors, The American Journal of Insanity, volume LXII, number 4, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press, →ISSN...