hystericus

Forms

hystericus (feminine hysterica, neuter hystericum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled ystericus and istericus in medical texts, and medieval ones have estericus and stericus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός (husterikós, “suffering in the womb”),^[1][4][5] from ὑστέρα (hustérā, “womb”).^[1][6] The name reflects the Greek belief that the condition came from a disturbance of the womb and belonged to women alone.^[1] Köbler traces the noun to Proto-Indo-European *udero- (“belly, womb”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Martial (40–102/103 AD) has the first instances,^[4][7][6] of a woman who claims to be hysterica, suffering in the womb.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Latin it stayed a medical word: used of women, it meant suffering from a disorder of the womb; used of things, it meant relating to the womb, above all in hysterica pnix, the suffocation of the womb, which Marcellus says the Greeks called by that name.^[2] Latin Dioscorides used it of pains, swellings and purges of the womb.^[2] Medieval medicine added the sense of a remedy good for the womb.^[3]

English took it over in the 17th century in hysterical and hysteric.^[8]

Timeline

• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of a woman.^[4][7][6]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it in his medical work.^[2][6]
• 9th century – The Latin Dioscorides prescribes for women who are sterica.^[3][6]
• 1610s – English forms hysterical from it.^[8]
• 1650s – English borrows it as hysteric.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a woman, suffering from a disorder of the womb.^[4][2][3]
2. Relating to the womb;^[2][3] hysterica pnix, suffocation of the womb.^[2][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) Good for the womb.^[3]

Related words

• English hysteric
• English hysterical

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com