hypochondria

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   persistent, excessive anxiety that one has or may develop a serious illness; now a nontechnical or dated term

   His hypochondria made every minor ache seem like evidence of severe disease.

2. 2
   noun

   historical: melancholy, low spirits, or depression believed to arise in the upper abdomen

   Victorian doctors sometimes used hypochondria for a patient's prolonged melancholy.

Simplified etymology

Hypochondria entered English in the late Middle Ages. It means literally “under the cartilage of the breastbone” and originally referred to the liver, which was believed to be the source of melancholy. The sense “anxiety about health” did not develop until the late 19th century.

From New Latin hypochondria, based on Greek hypochondria, the regions beneath the rib cartilage (hypo- 'under' + chondros 'cartilage'). Ancient and early modern medicine located melancholy there. The term later shifted from low spirits to excessive concern about illness; modern diagnostic language uses more specific terms.

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