stammer

stammer vb Stammer, stutter both mean to speak in a faltering, hesitating, or stumbling manner.

Stammer usually implies a proximate cause (as fear, embarrassment, or a sudden shock) which deprives one for the time being of control over his vocal organs and inhibits his power to speak straightforwardly; the word can suggest a blocking in which one either cannot form sounds or a slow confused articulation or an involuntary repetition of sounds or words

{

the eloquent tongue forgot its office. Cicero stammered, blundered, and sat down— Froude

}

{

"Why— why—" stammered the youth struggling with his balking tongue— Crane

}

Stutter usually stresses the involuntary repetition of sounds, especially of consonantal or syllabic sounds. It is less likely than stammer to imply a proximate cause and typically, especially in medical use, implies a constitutional defect (as a nervous affliction or a speech defect) which results in a habitual and persistent speech problem

{

no two persons stutter alike ... a stutterer who stumbles over the initial of "Peter" may have no trouble with any other p in . . . "Peter Piper's peppers"— Scripture

}

{

this gentleman has ... a small natural infirmity; he stutters a little

}

In nontechnical use the terms are often used interchangeably especially in their extended senses, in which both terms are freely employed either in reference to a fluctuating repetitive sound or to something that halts or progresses by fits and starts like the speech of a stammerer or stutterer

{

climbed into his Ford and stuttered down the hill— Steinbeck

}

{

her pen sometimes stammers with the intensity of the emotion that she controlled— Woolf

}

{

a brilliant idea stands still and stuttering— Pritchett

}