Echolalia is a noun that refers to the meaningless repetition of another person’s spoken words.
Coming from the late 19th century, our word of the day takes its prefix from the Greek word echo (EK oh) a word used to describe a repetition, and combines that with the Latin word lalia (LA lee uh) meaning ‘speech.’
Originally used to describe a medical condition, echolalia may describe any kind of meaningless repetition of someone else’s words. Here’s an example:
The arguments between my kids can get pretty tedious. It’s basically just fifteen minutes of echolalia followed by doors slamming loudly.
