hysterical

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English

Etymology

From hysteric +‎ -al, from Latin hystericus, from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός (husterikós, “suffering in the womb, hysterical”), from ῠ̔στέρᾱ (hustérā, “womb”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɪˈstɛɹɪkəl/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛɹɪkəl

Adjective

hysterical (comparative more hysterical, superlative most hysterical)

  1. Of, or arising from hysteria.
    • 1837, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Ethel Churchill, volume 3, page 221:
      Henrietta gasped for breath; but she swallowed down the hysterical emotion, and signed with her hand for Walter to go on.
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
      An event of this nature, a marriage, or a refusal, or a proposal, thrills through a whole household of women, and sets all their hysterical sympathies at work.
  2. Having, or prone to having hysterics.
  3. Provoking uncontrollable laughter.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎[1]:
      She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
    • 2016 February 6, James Zogby, “Israel’s prickliness blocks the long quest for peace”, in The National‎[2]:
      There is a certain irony in all of this because in their hysterical use of charge of “double standard” – that Israel is being “singled out for criticism”– it is Israel’s supporters who are themselves guilty of a “double standard”, since, if they were to have their way, it is Israel that would be singled out as the only country that cannot be criticised.

Usage notes

  • Like many terms that start with a non-silent h but have emphasis on their second syllable, some people precede hysterical with an, others with a.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

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