Involuntary, repetitive muscle movements or sounds that a person makes without thinking, often caused by nervous habits or neurological conditions like Tourette syndrome.
From French 'tic' (mid-1600s), possibly from Dutch 'tik' or imitative in origin. It entered English medical vocabulary in the 1700s to describe these repetitive involuntary movements.
Your brain has a 'habit circuit' that once activated, runs almost automatically—that's why tics are so hard to stop even when you're aware of them. Famous people with tics, like soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, show that tics don't limit success, they're just an annoying passenger in your nervous system.
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