delirium

See also: Delirium and delírium

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēlīrium (“derangement, madness”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: dĭlĭʹrēəm
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈlɪ.ɹi.əm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɪˈlɪɹ.i.əm/
• Rhymes: -ɪəɹiəm

Noun

delirium (countable and uncountable, plural deliriums or deliria)

1. (medicine) A temporary mental state with a sudden onset, usually reversible, including symptoms of confusion, inability to concentrate, disorientation, anxiety, and sometimes hallucinations. Causes can include dehydration, drug intoxication, and severe infection.
   • 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:

     The popular delirium [of the French Revolution] at first caught his enthusiastic mind.

   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     Better to decay in absolute delirium, than to be the victim of the methodical unreason of ill-bestowed love.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Return to Courtenaye Hall”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 149:

     The evening wore away, and the long grass was silvery with dew; the consequence was what might have been expected,—next day, he was laid up with a violent cold; and the fever soon ran so high, that delirium came on; and before three days were past, his life hung upon a thread.

   • 1879, John Morley, Burke:

     the delirium of the preceding session (of Parliament)

2. Wild, frenzied excitement or ecstasy.

Related terms

• agitated delirium
• deliracy
• delirament
• delirancy
• delirant
• delirate
• delirating
• deliration
• delire
• delirement
• deliriant
• deliriate
• delirifacient
• deliring
• delirious
• deliriously
• deliriousness
• delirium tremens
• delirous
• delirousness
• deliry
• excited delirium
• nocturnal delirium

 

Translations

mental state of confusion

• Albanian: jerm (sq) m
• Arabic: هَذَيَان‎ m (haḏayān)
• Armenian: զառանցանք (hy) (zaṙancʿankʿ), ցնորք (hy) (cʿnorkʿ)
• Asturian: deliriu
• Azerbaijani: sayıqlama, deliriya
• Basque: eldarnio, zoraldi, zorabio
• Belarusian: брэд m (bred)
• Bulgarian: бълну́ване (bg) n (bǎlnúvane), дели́риум (bg) m (delírium)
• Catalan: deliri (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 譫妄／谵妄 (zh) (zhānwàng), 神志昏迷 (zh) (shénzhì hūnmí)

• Czech: delirium (cs) n
• Danish: delirium n
• Dutch: delier n, delirium (nl) n
• Finnish: houretila, sekavuus (fi)
• French: délire (fr) m
• Galician: delirio m
• German: Delirium (de) n, Fieberphantasie (de) n, Taumel m
• Greek: παραλήρημα (el) n (paralírima), ντελίριο (el) n (delírio)
• Gujarati: ચિત્તભ્રમણા (cittabhramṇā)
• Hebrew: דֶלִירְיוּם‎ (he) m (deliryum)
• Hungarian: delírium (hu)
• Irish: rámhaille f
• Italian: delirio (it) m
• Japanese: せん妄 (ja) (せんもう, senmō), 譫妄 (ja) (せんもう, senmō)
• Kazakh: сандырақ (sandyraq)
• Korean: 섬망(譫妄) (ko) (seommang)
• Latin: dēlīrium n
• Latvian: delīrijs m
• Macedonian: делириум m (delirium)
• Maori: kutukutuahi, ngutungutuahi, kuawa, mate kuawa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: delirium n

• Persian: دلیریوم‎ (deliryum)
• Plautdietsch: Feebadroom m
• Polish: majaczenie n, delirium (pl) n, (colloquial) delirka f
• Portuguese: delírio (pt) m
• Romanian: delir (ro) n
• Romansch: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: бред (ru) m (bred), дели́рий (ru) m (delírij), горя́чка (ru) f (gorjáčka)
• Scottish Gaelic: breisleach m, boile f, mearan m, bruaillean m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: делиријум m

  Roman: delirijum (sh) m

• Slovak: delírium n
• Slovene: delirij m
• Spanish: delirio (es) m
• Swedish: delirium (sv) n
• Tagalog: deliryo
• Turkish: sayıklama (tr), deliriyum
• Ukrainian: бред m (bred), делі́рій m (delírij)
• Vietnamese: mê sảng (vi)

References

• “delirium”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “delirium”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēlīrium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /deːˈliː.ri.ʏm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧li‧ri‧um

Noun

delirium n (plural deliria or deliriums, diminutive deliriumpje n)

1. delirium

Synonyms

• delier

Latin

Etymology

From dēlīrō (“to deviate from a straight track; to be crazy or deranged”) +‎ -ium (nominal suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /deːˈliː.ri.um/, [d̪eːˈlʲiːriʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /deˈli.ri.um/, [d̪eˈliːrium]

Noun

dēlīrium n (genitive dēlīriī or dēlīrī); second declension

1. (medicine) Delirium, madness, frenzy.

   Synonyms: dēlīrātiō, dēlīritās

   • c. 47 C.E., Aulus Cornelius Celsus, De Medicina, 2.7.28:

     […] aut quī febre aequē nōn quiēscente simul et dēlīrio et spīrandī difficultāte vexātur […]

     […] or when, likewise without the fever subsiding, he is distressed at once by delirium and difficulty in breathing […]

Inflection

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	dēlīrium	dēlīria
Genitive	dēlīriī dēlīrī1	dēlīriōrum
Dative	dēlīriō	dēlīriīs
Accusative	dēlīrium	dēlīria
Ablative	dēlīriō	dēlīriīs
Vocative	dēlīrium	dēlīria

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Related terms

• dēlīritās
• dēlīrus
• dēlīrāmentum
• dēlīrātiō
• dēlīrō

 

Descendants

Descendants of delirium in other languages

• >? Asturian: deleres
• Catalan: deler, → deliri
• → Asturian: deliriu
• → Bulgarian: дели́р (delír)
• → Catalan: deliri
• → Czech: delirium
• → Danish: delirium
• → Dutch: delier, delirium
• → English: delirium
• → Esperanto: deliro
• → Estonian: deliirium
• → Finnish: delirium
• → French: délire, delirium
  • → Romanian: delir
• → German: Delirium
• → Hungarian: delírium
• → Ido: deliro
• → Interlingua: delirio
• → Italian: delirio
• → Northern Kurdish: delîriyûm
• → Norwegian: delirium, dille
• → Polish: delirium
• → Portuguese: delírio
• → Russian: дели́рий (delírij)
• → Serbo-Croatian: делиријум
• → Slovak: delírium
• → Spanish: delirio, delírium
• → Swedish: delirium
• → Turkish: deliriyum

References

• “delirium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin dēlīrium.

Noun

delirium n (definite singular deliriet, indefinite plural delirier, definite plural deliria or deliriene)

1. a delirium

References

• “delirium” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin dēlīrium.

Noun

delirium n (definite singular deliriet, indefinite plural delirium, definite plural deliria)

1. a delirium

References

• “delirium” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēlīrium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛˈli.rjum/
• Rhymes: -irjum
• Syllabification: de‧li‧rium

Noun

delirium n

1. (pathology) delirium (mental state of confusion)

   Synonym: majaczenie

Declension

Declension of delirium

	singular	plural
nominative	delirium	deliria
genitive	delirium	deliriów
dative	delirium	deliriom
accusative	delirium	deliria
instrumental	delirium	deliriami
locative	delirium	deliriach
vocative	delirium	deliria

Derived terms

adjective

• deliryczny

 

nouns

• delirka
• deliryk

 

verb

• delirować

 

Related terms

noun

• delirium tremens

 

Further reading

• delirium in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• delirium in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēlīrium.

Noun

delirium n

1. delirium

   Synonym: (colloquial) dille

Declension

Declension of delirium
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	delirium	deliriet	delirier	delirierna
Genitive	deliriums	deliriets	deliriers	deliriernas