Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Hysterical |
HystericalAdjective1. Characterized by or arising from psychoneurotic hysteria; "during hysterical conditions various functions of the human body are disordered"- Morris Fishbein; "hysterical amnesia". 2. Marked by excessive or uncontrollable emotion; "hysterical laughter"; "a mob of hysterical vigilantes". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "hysterical" was first used: 1615. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Hysteria is a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses. The fear is often centered on a body part, most often on an imagined problem with that body part (disease is a common complaint). People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to the overwhelming fear.The term originates with a Greek medical term, hysterikos. This referred to a supposed medical condition peculiar to women caused by disturbances of the uterus. The same general definition came into widespread use in the late 1800s to describe what is today generally considered to be sexual dissatisfaction. "Treatment" typically consisted of the use of vibrators or water sprays to cause orgasm. By the early 1900s the practice, and term, had fallen from use.
Today the term is most often used in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public reactions. It is commonly applied to the waves of popular medical problems that "everyone gets" in response to news articles. The yuppy flu of the late 1980s and other ailments dating back to the advent of the press.
A similar usage refers to any sort of "public wave" phenomenon, and has been used to describe the periodic widespread reappearance and public interest in UFO reports, crop circles, and similar examples.
See also: conversion hysteria
External links
- Medical Definition of Hysteria
- A Cultural History of Hysteria in 19th-Century British Prose
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Hysteria."
Synonym: HystericalSynonym: hysteric (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Caprice | Adjective: capricious; erratic, eccentric, fitful, hysterical; full of whims; Noun: maggoty; inconsistent, fanciful, fantastic, whimsical, crotchety, kinky, particular, humorsome, freakish, skittish, wanton, wayward; contrary; captious; arbitrary; unconformable; penny wise and pound foolish; fickle; (irresolute); frivolous, sleeveless, giddy, volatile. |
Excitability | Feverish, febrile, hysterical; delirious, mad, moody, maggoty-headed. |
Excitation | Exciting, absorbing, riveting, distracting; Verb: impressive, warm, glowing, fervid, swelling, imposing, spirit-stirring, thrilling; high-wrought; soul-stirring, soul-subduing; heart-stirring, heart-swelling, heart-thrilling; agonizing; (painful); telling, sensational, hysterical; overpowering, overwhelming; more than flesh and blood can bear; yellow. |
Feeling | Pervading, penetrating, absorbing; rabid, raving, feverish, fanatical, hysterical; impetuous; (excitable). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Hysterical |
| English words defined with "hysterical": confusedly ♦ hysteric, hysterically. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "hysterical": CACHINNATION ♦ hysterical reasons ♦ Mother-sick. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The hysterical shouting was in tongues, like at a Pentecostal Church (Fight Club; writing credit: Jim Uhls) She had become hysterical and she started screaming and I guess I hit her. I don't actually recall, it all happened so quickly (Klute; writing credit: Andy Lewis; Dave Lewis) Uh, huh. Just working through a little hysterical deafness here (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) That's hysterical! Jackie what's yours (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein) I'm hysterical! I'm having hysterics (The Producers; writing credit: Mel Brooks) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Hysterical History (1953) One Hysterical Night (1929) Hysterical (1983) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Toledo, Ohio. Copy of the anti-British letter shown at an Evangelical church ceremony at which the preacher delivered a hysterical speech, and then burned a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Uninhibited; laughing; hysterical; beside oneself; carried away; corybantic; crazy; delighted; drunk; ecstatic; enthused; frenetic; frenzied; happy; intoxicated; mad; overexcited; overwrought; rabid; rapturous; thrilled; transported; wild. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Hysterical tremor (also called psychogenic tremor) occurs in both older and younger patients. (references) | |
Some tremors respond to treatment of the underlying condition, for example in some cases of hysterical tremor treating the patient's underlying mental problem may cause the tremor to disappear. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Hysterical" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.18% of the time. "Hysterical" is used about 440 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 98.18% | 432 | 13,298 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.82% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Total | 100.00% | 440 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "hysterical": hysterical neurosis ♦ hysterical outburst ♦ hysterical reasons ♦ hysterical woman. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "hysterical": near-hysterical, semi-hysterical. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "hysterical"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | هستيري (hysteric), هرعي. (various references) | |
Chinese | 狂亂 . (various references) | |
Czech | hysterický, přemrštìný (camp, exorbitant, extravagant, fancy, glowing, gushing, immoderate, steep, stiff, unreasonable). (various references) | |
Danish | hysterisk. (various references) | |
Dutch | hysterisch. (various references) | |
Esperanto | histeria. (various references) | |
French | hystérique (hysteric). (various references) | |
German | hysterisch (hysteric). (various references) | |
Greek | υστερικός. (various references) | |
Hebrew | היסטרי. (various references) | |
Hungarian | hisztérikus (hysteric). (various references) | |
Indonesian | histeris (conniption). (various references) | |
Italian | isterico (hysteric). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | ヒステリー性格 (backside, be a hit, buttocks, hickory, hip cut, hip pad, hipbone skirt, hip-hop, hippie style, hippy, hips, hip-up girdle, Hispanic, hiss noise, histogram, history, hit, hit chart, hit man, hit parade, hit song, hit-and-run, hitch-hike, Hitler, hitting, hysteric, hysterical personality, safe hit, success). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ヒステリーせいかく (hysterical personality). (various references) | |
Manx | jiarg-eulyssagh (raging), drogh-ghuillag. (various references) | |
Norwegian | hysterisk. (various references) | |
Papiamen | histériko. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ystericalhay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | histérico. (various references) | |
Romanian | nervos (fidgety, fussy, ill natured, impatient, impatiently, irritably, irritated, jumpy, nervous, nervously, nervy, neurotic, overwrought, sinewy), isteric (hysteric, hysterically, panic stricken). (various references) | |
Russian | истеричный, истерический (hysterics). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | histeričan. (various references) | |
Spanish | histérico (hyper, hysteric). (various references) | |
Swedish | hysterisk (hysteric). (various references) | |
Turkish | isterik (hysteric). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | істеричний (hysteric). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | cuồng loạn. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | hysterikos. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | hystericus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "hysterical": hysterically. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "hysterical": nonhysterical, unhysterical. (additional references) | |
Words containing "hysterical": unhysterically. (additional references) | |
| |
"Hysterical" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bystrica, hesterical, histerical, histrical, hystarical, hysterica, hystericaly, hystrical. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "hysterical" (pronounced hi'ste"rikul) |
| 6 | -e" r i k u l | spherical. |
| 5 | -r i k u l | asymmetrical, categorical, cylindrical, electrical, empirical, geometrical, historical, symmetrical, theatrical, lyrical, metaphorical, metrical, nonelectrical, rhetorical, semicylindrical. |
| 4 | -i k u l | acoustical, alphabetical, analytical, antithetical, apolitical, archaeological, archeological, astrological, astronautical, astronomical, atypical, autobiographical, bicycle, biographical, biological, biomedical, biotechnological, botanical, cervical, chronological, classical, comical, conical, critical, cubicle, cyclical, cynical, dermatological, diabolical, dialectical, ecclesiastical, ecological, economical, ecumenical, egotistical, electrochemical, electromechanical, elliptical, encyclical, epidemiological, eschatological, ethical, ethnical, evangelical, fanatical, galenical, geographical, geological, geopolitical, graphical, gynecological, helical, heretical, hypercritical, hypocritical, icicle, identical, ideological, illogical, immunological, statistical, stereotypical, strategical, surgical, tactical, technical, technological, teleological, testicle, theological, inimical, ironical, lackadaisical, lexical, liturgical, logical, logistical, magical, mathematical, mechanical, metallurgical, metaphysical, methodological, morphological, musical, mystical, mythological, neoclassical, neurological, nonpolitical, nonsensical, nonsurgical, nontechnical, ontological, optical, ornithological, paradoxical, pathological, pedagogical, periodical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, pharmacological, philosophical, phonological, physical, physiological, popsicle, preclinical, problematical, prototypical, psychical, psychological, puritanical, rabbinical, radiological, sabbatical, semiclassical, semitropical, serological, sociological, theoretical, topical, toxicological, tricycle, tropical, typographical, tyrannical, umbilical, uncritical, uneconomical, unethical, untypical, vehicle, vertical, viatical, virological, whimsical, zoological. |
| 3 | -k u l | aeronautical, agrochemical, allegorical, anarchical, anatomical, ankle, anthropological, article, barnacle, biblical, bifocal, biochemical, brickle, buckle, cackle, chemical, Chronicle, chuckle, circle, clavicle, clerical, clinical, commonsensical, coracle, cortical, crackle, cuticle, cycle, debacle, diacritical, domical, ducal, encircle, epochal, equivocal, etymological, farcical, fecal, fickle, fiscal, focal, follicle, freckle, geophysical, gonococcal, grackle, grammatical, granduncle, hackle, heckle, heterocercal, hierarchical, honeysuckle, Huckle, hypothetical, impractical, Sokol, sparkle, speckle, spectacle, sprinkle, stickle, suckle, tabernacle, tackle, tentacle, jackal, knuckle, local, maniacal, matriarchal, medical, meikle, meteorological, methodical, Mickle, miracle, monocle, motorcycle, muckle, mythical, nautical, nickel, Nickle, Nicol, numerical, obstacle, Oracle, oratorical, particle, patriarchal, photochemical, pickle, pinnacle, polemical, political, pontifical, practical, pumpernickel, quizzical, radical, ramshackle, rankle, rascal, receptacle, reciprocal, recycle, ruckle, runkle, satirical, shackle, shekel, sickle, skeptical, tickle, tinkle, trickle, twinkle, typical, uncle, unequivocal, unicycle, unshackle, vocal, Winkle, wrinkle. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-h-i-l-r-s-t-y" | |
-1 letter: hairstyle, starchily. | |
-2 letters: articles, chariest, charleys, charlies, chastely, clayiest, earthily, ethicals, heartily, hyalites, hysteria, hysteric, lecythis, literacy, recitals, slithery, sterical, theriacs, trachles, trashily, yachters. | |
-3 letters: acetyls, achiest, aitches, archils, article, cahiers, carlish, cartels, cashier, chalets, charily, charity, charley, charlie, chaster, chitals, christy, cithers, citrals, clarets, claries, clarity, clasher, clayier, clayish, clerisy, clyster, crestal. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-h-i-l-r-s-t-y" | |
+2 letters: hyperplastic, hysterically, phylacteries, unhysterical. | |
+3 letters: chalcopyrites, heuristically, lycanthropies, nonhysterical. | |
+4 letters: cholestyramine, erythroblastic, hypercatalexis, hyperrealistic, lachrymosities, prosthetically, stretchability, unhysterically. | |
+5 letters: atmospherically, cholestyramines, dermatoglyphics, geostrophically, hypercatabolism, prehistorically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
