palsy

From Anglo-Norman paralisie, parleisie et al., from the accusative form of Latin paralysis, from Ancient Greek παράλυσις (parálusis, “palsy”), from παραλύειν (paralúein, “to disable on one side”), from παρά (pará, “beside”) + λύειν (lúein, “loosen”). Doublet of paralysis.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːlzi/

palsy (countable and uncountable, plural palsies)

1. (pathology) Complete or partial muscle paralysis of a body part, often accompanied by a loss of feeling and uncontrolled body movements such as shaking.
   • 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.

• paralysis

• Bell's palsy
• cerebral palsy
• Erb's palsy

palsy (third-person singular simple present palsies, present participle palsying, simple past and past participle palsied)

1. 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, The Last Man, volume 2, chapter 9

     Its streets were blocked up with snow - the few passangers seemed palsied with snow, and frozen by the ungenial visitation of winter.

From pals +‎ -y.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpælzi/

palsy (comparative more palsy, superlative most palsy)

1. (colloquial) Chummy, friendly.

• palsy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• palsy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• palsy at OneLook Dictionary Search

• plays, splay, spyal