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.

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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