# palsy
## English
### Etymology 1

From Middle English palesie, from Anglo-Norman paralisie, parleisie et al., from Latin paralysis, from Ancient Greek παράλυσις (parálusis, “palsy”), from παραλύω (paralúō, “to disable on one side”), from παρα- (para-, “beside”) + λύω (lúō, “loosen”). Doublet of paralysis.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈpɔːlzi/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔːlzi

#### Noun

palsy (countable and uncountable, plural palsies)
* (pathology) Complete or partial muscle paralysis of a body part, often accompanied by a loss of feeling and uncontrolled body movements such as shaking.
** c. 1620,, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665):
    The palsie plagues my pulses when I prigg yoͬ: piggs or pullen your culuers take, or matchles make your Chanticleare or sullen
** 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 73:"Young lady, there is no hope; one side of the Duchesse is struck with palsy; she retains her senses, and will, most probably, to the last; but she cannot live through the night."
** 1891, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 1, in The Blue Pavilions:"Ah! now we come to business! Barber, who's dead?" "Alderman Croten, sir." "Tut-tut. Croten gone?" "Yes, sir; palsy took him at a ripe age. And Abel's gone, the Town Crier;"
** 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth:Again we were stricken of our palsy, slowed down, re-accelerated, and there, at last, were the few huts of a hamlet, with the lorry, lying at an angle in the road's camber, outside a tea-shop.
    Synonym: paralysis

##### Alternative forms

* palsie (obsolete)

##### Derived terms

* artisan's palsy
* Bell's palsy
* cerebral palsy
* Erb-Duchenne palsy
* Erb's palsy
* honeymoon palsy
* night palsy
* palsy-walsy
* Saturday night palsy
* scrivener's palsy
* supranuclear palsy
* wasting palsy

##### Translations
#### Verb

palsy (third-person singular simple present palsies, present participle palsying, simple past and past participle palsied)
* To paralyse, either completely or partially.
** 1831, William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, To The Public
    In the month of August, I issued proposals for publishing "THE LIBERATOR" in Washington city; but the enterprise, though hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by public indifference.
** 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter IX, in The Last Man. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:Its streets were blocked up with snow - the few passengers seemed palsied with snow, and frozen by the ungenial visitation of winter.

#### See also

* apoplexy

### Etymology 2

From pals +‎ -y.

#### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈpælzi/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)

#### Adjective

palsy (comparative more palsy, superlative most palsy)
* (colloquial) Chummy, friendly.

### Further reading

* “palsy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “palsy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
* “palsy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* pyals, plays, spyal, splay