hys·ter·ic

(hĭ-stĕr′ĭk)

1. hysterics(used with a sing. or pl. verb) A fit of uncontrollable laughing or crying.

2. A person suffering from hysteria. No longer in clinical use.

[From Latin hystericus, hysterical, from Greek husterikos, from husterā, womb (from the former idea that disturbances in the womb caused hysteria).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hysteric

(hɪˈstɛrɪk)

a hysterical person

adj

hysterical

[C17: from Latin hystericus literally: of the womb, from Greek husterikos, from hustera the womb; from the belief that hysteria in women originated in disorders of the womb]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

hys•ter•ic

(hɪˈstɛr ɪk)

n.

1. Usu., hysterics. a fit of uncontrollable laughter or weeping; hysteria.

2. a person subject to hysteria.

adj.

3. hysterical.

[1650–60; < Latin hystericus < Greek hysterikós, suffering in the womb, hysterical (reflecting the Greeks' belief that hysteria was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances in the uterus); see hystero-, -ic]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	hysteric - a person suffering from hysteria mental case, neurotic, psychoneurotic - a person suffering from neurosis
Adj.	1.	hysteric - characterized by or arising from psychoneurotic hysteria; "during hysterical conditions various functions of the human body are disordered"- Morris Fishbein; "hysterical amnesia" hysterical psychoneurotic, neurotic - affected with emotional disorder

Translations

hysterisch

isterico

hys·ter·ic

, hysterical

a. histérico-a, rel. a la histeria o que padece de ella;

a. histéricamente;

to get ___ → ponerse ___;

___ laughter → risa ___.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

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References in classic literature

You're in the plot--you made him marry, thinking that I'd leave my money from him-- you did, Martha," the poor old lady screamed in hysteric sentences.

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The spinster aunt uttered a piercing scream, burst into an hysteric laugh, and fell backwards in the arms of her nieces.

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"You'll find out if you work him into a tantrum after this--but at any rate you've given him something to have hysterics about, and I'm glad of it."

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Why, it's not once in a lifetime a man speaks out like this, and then it is in hysterics! ...What more do you want?

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She fell into violent hysterics immediately, with such screams as reached your brother's ears, as he was sitting in his own dressing-room down stairs, thinking about writing a letter to his steward in the country.

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And even when the rest have in some measure come to themselves again, and can find words and smiles, Barbara--that soft-hearted, gentle, foolish little Barbara--is suddenly missed, and found to be in a swoon by herself in the back parlour, from which swoon she falls into hysterics, and from which hysterics into a swoon again, and is, indeed, so bad, that despite a mortal quantity of vinegar and cold water she is hardly a bit better at last than she was at first.

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Is there a form of hysterics that bursts into words instead of tears?

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"Tell me what it all means," said I, in a state bordering on hysterics.

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My aunt, with one clap of her hands, and one look through her spectacles, immediately went into hysterics, for the first and only time in all my knowledge of her.

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They are less easily excited off their balance; they can recognize and obey their master's voice in the scuffle and rage of battle; and they never fly into nervous hysterics such as are common, say, with fox-terriers.

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Rouse any melancholy or terrible associations in me at such times, and I am capable of hysterics, I am capable of screaming.

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I did not even wish to know her name, nor do I know it." Just then a piercing cry, ending in a sob, burst from the centre of the crowd, who encircled the lady who had before fainted, and who now fell into a violent fit of hysterics. She was carried out of the hall, the thick veil which concealed her face dropped off, and Madame Danglars was recognized.

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