paranoid

Etymology

The OED takes it as borrowed from New Latin paranoides, from the psychiatric term dementia paranoides in the fifth edition (1896) of Kraepelin's textbook of psychiatry, formed from paranoia and -oides;^[2] it compares French paranoïde (1900) and German paranoid (1909).^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster derive it from English paranoia + -oid, irregularly formed,^[3][4] and Dictionary.com and Klein explain the short form as a merging of base and suffix by haplology.^[5][6] The noun paranoia goes back to Ancient Greek παράνοια (paránoia, “madness”), from παράνοος (paránoos, “demented”), from παρά (pará, “beside, beyond”) and νόος (nóos, “mind”).^[2][7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In medicine, relating to or showing paranoia: 1902, in A. R. Diefendorf's translation of Kraepelin's Clinical Psychiatry.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date it to 1901.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a person with paranoia, is recorded from 1921 in the OED and by 1922 in Etymonline.^[2][3] A looser sense, showing needless or extreme fear or an unreasonable suspicion of others, is recorded from 1954, in Koestler.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang ties the everyday senses "frightened, worried, upset" to the hippie era of the 1960s, when they often followed heavy drug use; a 1969 glossary already noted that the word was loosely applied to anyone agitated or upset.^[8]

Timeline

• 1901 – adjective, resembling or marked by paranoia.^[3][4]
• 1902 – in medicine, of or showing paranoia.^[2]
• 1921 – noun, a person with paranoia.^[2]
• 1954 – unreasonably fearful or suspicious.^[2]
• 1969 – slang, frightened, worried, upset.^[8]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. (psychiatry) Relating to, showing or resembling paranoia.
2. (informal) Unreasonably suspicious or fearful, especially of being persecuted: He grew paranoid that his neighbours were spying on him.

Noun

1. A person who has paranoia or shows its behaviour.

Word family

• paranoid schizophrenia

Related words

• paranoia
• paranoiac
• -oid
• nous

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster gives paranoidal as a less common form of the adjective,^[4] and Dictionary.com gives paranoiac as an alternative.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com