deaf
pronunciation
How to pronounce deaf in British English:
UK [def]
How to pronounce deaf in American English:
US [def]
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- Noun:
- people who have severe hearing impairments
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- Verb:
- make or render deaf
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- Adjective:
- lacking or deprive of the sense of hearing wholly or in part
- (usually followed by `to') unwilling or refusing to pay heed
Word Origin
- deaf
- deaf: [OE] Ultimately, deaf and dumb come from the same source, and moreover they are related to a Greek word for ‘blind’. The common denominator ‘sensory or mental impairment’ goes back to an Indo-European base *dheubh-, which denoted ‘confusion, stupefaction, dizziness’. It produced Greek tuphlós ‘blind’; English dumb; and a prehistoric Germanic adjective *daubaz ‘dull, stupefied, slow’.Many of the modern descendants of *daubaz retain this general sense – Danish doven means ‘lazy’ – but English has specialized it to ‘dull in hearing’. Duffer may ultimately be derived from Old Norse daufr ‘deaf’ in which the sense ‘dull, stupid’ is preserved.=> duffer, dumb
- deaf (adj.)
- Old English deaf "deaf," also "empty, barren," specialized from Proto-Germanic *daubaz (cognates: Old Saxon dof, Old Norse daufr, Old Frisian daf, Dutch doof "deaf," German taub, Gothic daufs "deaf, insensate"), from PIE dheubh-, which was used to form words meaning "confusion, stupefaction, dizziness" (cognates: Greek typhlos "blind," typhein "to make smoke;" Old English dumb "unable to speak;" Old High German tumb). The word was pronounced to rhyme with reef until 18c. Deaf-mute is from 1837, after French sourd-muet. Deaf-mutes were sought after in 18c.-19c. Britain as fortune-tellers. Deaf as an adder (Old English) is from Psalms lviii:5.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Kent is profoundly deaf , but he misses nothing .
- 2. The team tested the effects of la traviata on deaf mice too .
- 3. It helps explain why those who are congenitally deaf may have extraordinary sight .
- 4. In what language do deaf people think ?
- 5. Deaf cats don 't have better overall vision than their hearing counterparts , the researchers found .