Picture someone telling their own hand to move, and nothing happening. The wish is there, the hand is there, and the line between them has gone quiet. That is the picture the whole word carries: a body that no longer takes orders. From it you get the medical adjective, the noun for a person in that state, the noun for a drug that produces that state on purpose and briefly, and, as slang in Britain, Ireland and Australia, the state of someone who has drunk so much that the body has stopped listening too.
From the word’s history
Borrowed from French paralytique, from Latin paralyticus, from Ancient Greek paralutikos, paralysed. The Greek root is about something being loosened or released, which fits the picture of the line between the will and the muscle coming undone.
從法文 paralytique 借進來，法文來自拉丁文 paralyticus，再往上是古希臘文 παραλυτικός（癱瘓的）。希臘字根講的是「鬆開、解開」，正好對上那個畫面：想動的念頭和肌肉之間，那條線鬆掉了。
Wiktionary etymology supplied in this packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1235227242): Borrowed from French paralytique, from Latin paralyticus, from Ancient Greek paralutikos (paralyzed).
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