Where did the name Asperger Syndrome comes from?
Hans Asperger, an Austrian scientist in 1944, discovered the syndrome. He found out why children and adults behaved differently from other people and linked it with autism, except that he found that these people had average or above average intelligence. The disability was named after him of course, but would it have had a better ring to if I discovered it for example and it was called Handley Syndrome? Autism however was discovered by Leo Kanner a few years before Asperger. The word autism comes from the word auto, as in automatic, or doing something by oneself. In this case a person diagnosed has difficulty doing regular things by themselves. Rumour has it that the words Asperger and asparagus are related to each other as both words translate as exactly the same word. Someone also told me that the French word asperge also seems to be a translation for both Asperger and asparagus.
