Posted by yxibow on January 2, 2006, at 18:56:04 [reposted on January 3, 2006, at 0:19:14 | original URL]
In reply to What is Hysteria?, posted by rjlockhart on January 2, 2006, at 13:55:09
> I read some on this but didnt knew what it ment.
>
> Is this some disorder?
>
>Like the previous posters, it basically means maddening anxiety with lots of screaming and tears and the like. It is a very mysogenistic (abusive of the female gender) word and is certainly not used clinically in western societies today.
Etymologically, from OED:
hysteric, a. and n.
[ad. L. hysteric-us, ad. Gr. belonging to the womb, suffering in the womb, hysterical (f. womb), esp. in hysterica passio]Of course it can also be used mostly "positively" in the term hysterical (e.g. that movie was so hysterical it made me laugh out of my chair).
-tidings
poster:yxibow
thread:594628
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060102/msgs/594635.html