anencephaly
noun
[an-en-sef–uh-lee]
Definition
(Medical)congenital absence of part or all of the brain.
brainless, empty-headed, to have a skull with an echo.
Examples
-
In a former article I alluded to encephalous and anencephalous cases, where there were either no heads or heads without brains.
-
Of anomalies of the head the first to be considered will be the anencephalous monsters who, strange to say, have been known to survive birth.
-
Brunet describes an anencephalous boy born at term who survived his birth.
-
Saviard delivered an anencephalous child at term which died in thirty-six hours.
Origin
The word is a Latinization of Greek anenkephalos, used by the great 2nd century Greek physician Galen. It is made up of four elements, a(n)- “without” + en “in” + kephale “head” + an adjective suffix. We find the prefix a(n)- in many borrowed English words like amoral, amorphous (without shape), and agnostic. The N is inserted before vowels, as it is when using the English article a(n), as an apple. En comes from the same source as English in. Greek kephale “head” comes from the same Proto-Indo-European word as English gable and German Giebel “gable.”
A Writer's Life 
Reminds me of just about the only book I ever sold back to the bookstore in college… “Genetics.” The section on human HOX genes was fascinating; but it gave me bad dreams for weeks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wouldn’t have made it inside the book. Fascinating stuff, but my brain shuts off when I try to figure it out.
LikeLiked by 1 person