Also 7 ataxie; in sense 2 often as L. ataxia. [ad. Gr. ἀταξία, f. ἀ priv. + τάξις arrangement, order, f. τάσσ-ειν to arrange.]
† 1. Want of order or discipline; irregularity, confusion, disorderliness. Obs. in gen. sense.
1615. Byfield, On Coloss. ii. 10 (1869), 205/2. There is [no] ataxy among those glorious creatures [i.e., angels].
1634. Canne, Necess. Separ. (1849), 207. A mere ataxy, or confused chaos.
a. 1733. North, Exam., III. viii. ¶ 70. If it had been slipt over, he must have blamed his own Ataxy in the Disposition.
2. Path. Irregularity of the animal functions, or of the symptoms of disease. Locomotor ataxy: inability to co-ordinate the voluntary movements, constitutional unsteadiness in the use of legs, arms, etc.
1670. Maynwaring, Vita Sana, i. 13. There ariseth Distempers, Ataxies and discord.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., VIII. 305. A Woman very subject to vapours and ataxies of the animal spirits.
1855. H. Spencer, Psychol. (1872), I. I. ii. 5. An early stage of ataxy.
1878. A. M. Hamilton, Nerv. Dis., 208. Locomotor ataxia … often occurs among sea-faring men who have fallen overboard.
