DEAFENED

adjective (Health and Fitness) (People and Society) Of a person: having lost the faculty of hearing (although not deaf from birth) to such an extent as to have to rely on visual aids such as lip-reading in order to understand speech. The corresponding noun for the state of being deafened is deafenedness. Etymology: A specialized use of the adjective, which has existed since the seventeenth century in the more general sense 'deprived of hearing', but has usually referred to temporary deafening (as, for example, by a loud noise). History and Usage: The distinction between the deaf (who have never been able to hear) and the deafened (who lose their hearing after having acquired normal language skills) has been made in medical literature for some time, often with an adverb making the situation absolutely clear, as pre-lingually deaf and post-lingually deafened. In popular usage, though, deaf has tended to serve both functions, as well as being used frequently to mean 'hard of hearing' (for which the official term is now hearing-impaired). The term deafened was brought into wider usage--partly as an attempt to alert the public to this important distinction and make them aware of the special problems of the deafened--by the formation of the National Association for Deafened People in 1984. Deafened people share many problems with those born deaf, but there is a gulf between us in terms of lifestyle. Good Housekeeping Sept. 1986, p. 45 Lip-reading...confounds crucial distinctions between the hard of hearing, the profoundly deafened and the pre-lingually profoundly deaf. The hard of hearing and the deafened have...been...supporters of oralism; and the born deaf have retaliated by speaking as if they alone were the true deaf. Independent 16 May 1989, p. 15