hysterical

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hystericus (“of the womb; hysterical”) with the English suffix -al,^[2][3][4][5] like hysteric.^[6] The Latin adjective is from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός (husterikós, “of the womb, suffering in the womb”),^[2][4][7] from ὑστέρα (hustérā, “womb”) and the suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[2][3] Etymonline traces the Greek noun to Proto-Indo-European *udtero-, a variant of *udero- (“abdomen, womb, stomach”),^[4] and Ayto relates it to uterus (“womb”).^[7] The word was applied to women, whose disorders were thought to come from the womb.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to the "hysterical passion", a disorder ascribed to the womb: 1603, in E. Jorden's treatise on the disease called the Suffocation of the Mother.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s,^[4] and Dictionary.com to 1605–15.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the adjective was a medical term: it described women affected with the disorder (1615) and the remedies used against it (1651).^[2] The noun hysteria, coined in medical Latin and recorded from 1801, later named the condition itself,^[4][7] and the plural noun hystericals, for fits of uncontrollable emotion, appears in 1797.^[2] By 1862, in Carlyle, the word described any wild, uncontrolled emotion or agitation,^[2] and since 1925 it has been used colloquially for "extremely funny",^[2] from the idea of fits of laughter, which Etymonline dates by 1939.^[4] American English once also had the colloquial hystericky (1792) for "inclined to hysteria".^[4]

Timeline

• 1603 – relating to the hysterical passion, a disorder ascribed to the womb.^[2]
• 1615 – affected by that disorder.^[2]
• 1651 – of a medicine, used against disorders of the womb.^[2]
• 1797 – noun in the plural, a fit of uncontrollable emotion.^[2]
• 1862 – marked by wild, unrestrained emotion.^[2]
• 1925 – colloquially, extremely funny.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Showing wild, uncontrolled emotion, such as fear, grief or excitement: The crowd grew hysterical as the gates closed.^[8][3][2]
2. Of, relating to or affected by hysteria as a medical or psychogenic disorder.^[8][3][2]
3. (informal) Extremely funny; hilarious: Her impression of the headmaster was hysterical.^[8][2]

Word family

• hysterically
• overhysterical
• posthysterical
• semihysterical
• unhysterical

Related words

• hysteric
• hysterics
• hysteria
• hysterectomy
• uterus

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins