mussitation
UK /mʌsɪˈteɪʃn̩/ · US /ˌmʌsɪˈteɪʃ(ə)n/ noun
Forms mussitations
- noun (chiefly archaic or obsolete) Speech conducted in a hushed manner, akin to a murmur or a whisper.
- noun (medicine) A comatose patient's action of forming words with their lips without producing sound.
Synonyms
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin mussitātiō (“soft noise made by dogs, or (Late Latin) people”) + English -ion (suffix denoting a condition or state). Mussitātiō is derived from mussitātus (“kept quiet; having been kept quiet; murmured, muttered; having been muttered”) (see further at mussitate) + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs).
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [L. mussitatio suppression of the voice, fr. mussitare to be silent, to murmur.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mussitation”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details