hysteria

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Wild, uncontrollable emotion, especially fear or panic, that spreads through a group of people.

   Mass hysteria broke out in the crowd when someone shouted that the building was on fire.

2. 2
   noun

   A state of extreme, uncontrollable excitement or emotion in one person.

   She burst into hysteria, laughing and crying at the same time.

3. 3
   noun

   An old psychiatric diagnosis for emotional or physical symptoms with no clear physical cause.

   In Freud's day, doctors often diagnosed nervous women with hysteria.

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.

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