delirium

Etymology

First recorded in the 1590s,^[1][2] or c. 1563 according to Merriam-Webster,^[3] borrowed from Latin dēlīrium (“madness”),^[4][1] from Latin dēlīrāre (“to be deranged, crazy”),^[4][5] literally “to leave the furrow” in ploughing,^[3][1] from dē- “off, away” + līra “furrow”,^[5][3] from Proto-Indo-European *leis- (“track, furrow”).^[1][5]

Delirium tremens, medical Latin for “trembling delirium”, was introduced in 1813 by the British physician Thomas Sutton.^[1]

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. [1] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. [1] [2] [3] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. [1] [2] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. [1] [2] [3] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin