TransWikia.com

Reliable Academic Source for the Etymology of "Trauma"?

English Language & Usage Asked on August 2, 2021

Problem: Are there any sources that I could cite in an academic paper for the etymology of "trauma" (noun), perhaps which come from a reliable source? I am particularly searching for the first recorded year in which it was used and its meaning at that time point.

Context: This post is somewhat helpful and at present I am using the Online Etymology Dictionary to cite its origin to 1690s where it was referred to as "physical wound" in medical Latin. However, I am wondering if any experts in linguistics have any recommendations?

One Answer

There is an extra-detail in the article Psychotraumatology in Greece from the European Journal of Psychotraumatology that says:

The word trauma comes from the Greek trauma (τραύμα) meaning trauma wound, alteration of trōma; akin to Greek titrōskein = to wound, tetrainein = to pierce.

Then you might want to look for Caruth, Cathy, Unclaimed Experience. It speaks about the term being first used as a physical wound but then, with Freud, it begins to be used in psychology:

In Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History, Cathy Caruth discusses the origin of the word "trauma," and the way Freud's analysis of it has shaped our modern understanding of the word:

...the Greek trauma, or 'wound,' originally referred to an injury inflicted on a body. In its later usage, particularly in the medical and psychiatric literature, and most centrally in Freud's text, the term trauma is understood as a wound inflicted not upon the body but upon the mind. But what seems to be suggested by Freud in Beyond the pleasure Principle is that the wound of the mind—the breach in the mind's experience of time, self, and the world—is not, like the wound of the body, a simple and healable event, but rather an event that...is experienced too soon, too unexpect edly, to be fully-known and is therefore not available to consciousness until it imposes itself again, repeatedly, in the nightmares and repetitive actions of the survivor. (3-4)

I am not sure you will find a detailed historic evolution of this word, but encyclopedias would be a good place to start.

This thesis also looks promising on at least providing titles of studies that speak about the origin and evolution of use of this word.

Answered by fev on August 2, 2021

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP