the.com/muteness
the loudest thing in any room is someone who refuses to speak.
means The condition or quality of being unable or unwilling to speak, whether by inability, choice, or sheer stubborn silence.
from From "mute," which comes through Old French "muet" from Latin "mutus" — "silent, dumb, not speaking." That Latin root is thought to be imitative in origin, echoing the inarticulate "mu-mu" sound a person makes when they have no real words, a cousin to the Greek "myein," to close (the lips or eyes). English added the homely "-ness" suffix to turn the adjective into a state of being — the quality of being mute.
- not deafness
- Many mute people hear perfectly; the channel is one-way.
- selective kind
- Some kids speak at home, freeze solid at school.
- sign fluency
- Hands replace the throat with full, dazzling grammar.
- trappist vow
- Monks chose lifelong silence as a spiritual discipline.
- brain wiring
- Stroke can sever speech while thought stays intact.
helen keller — deaf-blind american who learned to communicate through sign language and speech, 1880-1968
christopher reeve — actor who became unable to speak after 1995 accident, communicated via speech synthesizer
jean-paul sartre's mother — anne-marie schweitzer remained selectively mute after sartre's birth, documented in his autobiography