Dictionary

hysteria en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /hɪˈstɪəɹiə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /hɪˈstɪɹiə/ (General-American)
• /hɪˈstɛɹiə/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From New Latin hysteria, a back-formation from Latin hystericus, from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός (husterikós, “suffering in the uterus, hysterical”), from ὑστέρα (hustéra, “womb”). Compare French hystérie.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) Behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotions, in a wide range from joy to panic but usually including anxiety or fear.
   • Zinoviev was unwell and feverish. He was told he was to be transferred to another cell. But when he saw the guards he at once understood. All accounts agree that he collapsed, yelling in a high-pitched voice a desperate appeal to Stalin to keep his word. He gave the impression of hysteria, but this is probably not fair, as his voice was always very piercing when he was excited, and he was perhaps trying to make a last speech. He was, in addition, still suffering from heart and liver trouble, so that some sort of collapse is understandable. 1968, Robert Conquest, “Old Bolsheviks Confess”, in The Great Terror: Stalin's Purge of the Thirties, Macmillan Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 117:
   • At the very end of the Middle Ages, Breughel depicted country folk wrapped up in fits of mass hysteria, and the historical accounts of these rural frenzies have explained the delirium in terms of the slender diet on which the poor had to subsist during the hungry gap. 1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 102:
2. (qualifier:nosologically dated, uncountable, usually) A mental disorder characterized by emotional excitability etc. without an organic cause.
   • The typical cases of hysteria cited by Freud thus involved a moral conflict—a conflict about what the young women in question wanted to do with themselves. Did they want to prove that they were good daughters by taking care of their sick fathers? Or did they want to become independent of their parents, by having a family of their own, or in some other way? I believe it was the tension between these conflicting aspirations that was the crucial issue in these cases. The sexual problem—say, of the daughter's incestuous cravings for her father—was secondary (if that important); it was stimulated, perhaps, by the interpersonal situation in which the one had to attend to the other's body. Moreover, it was probably easier to admit the sexual problem to consciousness and to worry about it than to raise the ethical problem indicated. In the final analysis, the latter is a vastly difficult problem in living. It cannot be "solved" by any particular maneuver but requires rather decision making about basic goals, and, having made the decisions, dedicated efforts to attain them. 1974, Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., chapter 13, in The Myth of Mental Illness, →ISBN, page 218:
3. (informal, uncountable, usually) Synonym of conversion disorder.
4. (historical, obsolete, uncountable, usually) Any disorder of women with some psychiatric symptoms without other diagnosis, ascribed to uterine influences on the female body, lack of pregnancy, or lack of sex.

Forms

Deriveds

ecohysteria · female hysteria · anxiety hysteria · mass hysteria · Arctic hysteria · hystero- · conversion hysteria · homohysteria · canine hysteria

Hyponyms

Arctic hysteria (mental disorder) · piblokto (mental disorder) · female hysteria (mental disorder)

Relateds

hysterical · hysterics · hysteric

Synonyms

uterine melancholy (obsolete female disorder) · conversion disorder

Translations (83)

ru истери́я (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · fr hystérie (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · dv ހިސްޓީރިޔާ (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · lt isterija (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ky истерия (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · da hysteri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · kmr hîsterî (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · tg истерия (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · pt histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · si මායා රෝගය (medical disorder) · bg исте́рия (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ka ისტერია (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · sv hysteri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · be гістэры́я (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · eo histerio (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · is sefasýki (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · lv histērija (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · pl histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · sq histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · pap histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · th ฮิสทีเรีย (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · el υστερία (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · hu hisztéria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · vi ictêri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · sl histerija (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · cs hysterie (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ne हिस्टेरिया (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · he הִיסְטֶרְיָה (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · de Hysterie (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · nrf maladie malinne (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · sk hystéria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · id histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · bn হিস্টেরিয়া (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · it isteria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · uk гістері́я (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · bg хисте́рия (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · oc isteria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · mi mate wairangi (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ja ヒステリー (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · uz isteriya (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · sq histeri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ga histéire (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · tr isteri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · fi hysteria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · mk хистерија (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · es histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · et hüsteeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · az isteriya (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · bg исте́рия (medical disorder) · tg зиён (medical disorder) · ca histèria (medical disorder) · cmn 癔病 (medical disorder) · io histerio (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · vi ittêri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · tg ғаш (medical disorder) · nb hysteri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · fi hysteria (medical disorder) · hy հիստերիա (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · tl histerya (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · si කෝලසන්නිය (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · fa هیستری (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · uk істері́я (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ast histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · be істэры́я (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · sh хистѐрија (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · tr histeri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · nn hysteri (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ms histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ru истери́я (medical disorder) · tk isteriýa (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · nrf maladie malinne (medical disorder) · ca histèria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · hi हिस्टीरिया (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · uz истерия (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · kk истерия (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · eu histeria (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ar هِسْتِيرْيَا (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ro isterie (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · tg ҷунун (medical disorder) · cmn 歇斯底里 (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · si හිස්ටීරියාව (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · ko 히스테리 (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion) · sh histèrija (behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion)