embolalia means automatic speech; verbalization that occurs without conscious effort by the individual, such as repetitions and filler words. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
EMBOLALIA — [Noun] Automatic speech; the involuntary insertion of verbal filler, comprising the repetitions and formulaic phrases that punctuate everyday conversation. From Ancient Greek ἔμβολος (émbolos, "something thrown in, insertion") + -λαλιά (-lalia, "speech, talk"). Unlike glossolalia (which signifies ecstatic, divine utterance) or dysfluency (a clinical term for impaired flow), embolalia is the mundane mortar of hesitant thought. It is the rhythmic "um, ah, you know" knitting a sentence together, the politician's stalling "well..." before a difficult answer, the whispered "there, there" offered more to the comforter's own nerves than to the comforted—the audible proof of the mind's iterative labor against the pressure of silence.
noun
- Automatic speech; verbalization that occurs without conscious effort by the individual, such as repetitions and filler words.