perseveration

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˌsɛvəˈɹeɪʃən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pɚˌsɛvəˈɹeɪʃən/
• Hyphenation: per‧sev‧er‧a‧tion

perseveration (countable and uncountable, plural perseverations)

1. (psychology) Uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture, despite the absence or cessation of a stimulus, usually caused by brain injury or other organic disorder.
2. (psychology) The tendency to continue or repeat an act or activity after the cessation of the original stimulus.
3. The act or an instance of persevering; perseverance.
4. (derogatory) Argument by repetition; a mantra.
   • 2006 February 1, Mark Furlong, “Just keep walking: shame has become passe, a victim of a culture that views it as an impediment to achieving one's own ends. But at what cost to how we treat others. (The ‘Me’ Revolution)”, in Arena Magazine:

     Being subjected to this mantra once more re-evokes the perseveration we routinely suffer in the moral ambiguity characterising our supposedly post-politics milieu.

   • 2009 September 23, Richard B. Hoppe, “Science, Non-Science, and Pseudoscience”, in pandasthumb.org:

     Perseveration with demonstrably false arguments. This is illustrated for creationism by the ability to construct an Index to Creationist Claims which describes the plethora of such false arguments, rebutted over and over in the scientific literature but persisted in by creationists.

• perseverance
• perseverate

• “perseveration”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.