The Latin word "copia" means "plenty" or "abundance". You may recognise it as part of the word "cornucopia" meaning "horn of plenty" which is a mythical symbol of abundance (cornu=horn, copia=plenty or copious). So "dyscopia", if it were a real Latin word, would literally mean "difficulty attaining abundance" or simply being poor. It could also be taken to mean a state of being unable to recognise when abundance has been attained, and as such, would describe a mental condition by which much of the population of the developed world is afflicted.
The word "dyscopia" is sometimes used as a wry cryptic message in medical notes to alert involved carers to the fact that there might be more than the patient's immediate wellbeing to consider. For example a youngster being treated for asthma might have a comment "♀=dyscopia" in the margin of their medical notes to indicate to another treating practitioner that they should choose their words carefully when talking to the child's parents because the mother is not coping well with the situation.
In this context it is a made-up word which means "not coping" and is, perhaps ironically, an example of the dry humour used by health care professionals to help them cope with the stresses of their work.
This site is named after the light hearted spirit of this usage. However, it should be remembered that trivialising people's genuine medical needs is not a subject to to be taken lightly.
In the tradition of having-a-name-for-everythingism, medical literature, with another made-up meaning (no wry humour here, just simple ignorance/laziness), uses "dyscopia" to describe difficulty or inability in copying. It is mainly used in the context of writing or drawing skills and is considered a sub-category of dyspraxia (difficulty in performing coordinated movement) and related to dysgraphia (difficulty with writing). Loosely it is taken to mean "not good at copying" for which the correct latin word (no need to make anything up) would be "dystranscribia" (http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookdown.pl?copy).
These so-called diagnoses. like many others, are really nothing more than a description of symptoms which has been translated to Latin to make it sound more authoritative on the basis of quid quid latine dictum sit, profundum videtur (anything said in Latin seems profound).
If you have stumbled upon this site in the hope of finding something useful in the area of fine motor skills try one of these links: http://www.dyspraxia.com.au, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_dyspraxia or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysgraphia.
If you are looking for information about coping (or not coping) you might find something useful here: http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx
Any further content on this site which is either useful or pertains to difficulties associated with copying, coping or copiousness is entirely coincidental.
