HYSTERIA

noun Etymology: New Latin, from English hysteric, adjective, from Latin hystericus, from Greek hysterikos, from hystera womb; from the Greek notion that ~ was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus Date: 1801 a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions, behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess , hysteric noun hysterical also hysteric adjective hysterically adverb