When everyone is in a panic about a potential upcoming storm, this is an example of a time when there is great hysteria about the storm.
- a psychiatric condition variously characterized by emotional excitability, excessive anxiety, sensory and motor disturbances, or the unconscious simulation of organic disorders, such as blindness, deafness, etc.
- any outbreak of wild, uncontrolled excitement or feeling, such as fits of laughing and crying
Origin of hysteriaModern Latin ; from hysteric + -ia
- Behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic.
- A group of psychiatric symptoms, including heightened emotionality, attention-seeking behavior, and physical symptoms in the absence of organic pathology. The symptoms of hysteria are currently attributed to any of several psychiatric conditions, including somatization disorder, multiple personality disorder, and histrionic personality disorder. The term hysteria is no longer used in clinical use.
Origin of hysteriaNew Latin : hyster(ic) + –ia1.
(usually uncountable, plural hysterias or hysteriæ)
From New Latin hysteria, from hysteric, from Latin hystericus, from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός (hysterikos, “suffering in the uterus, hysterical”), from ὑστέρα (hustera, “womb”). Compare French hystérie.