hysteria
noun
[ hɪˈstɪərɪə ]
• exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement.
• "the anti-Semitic hysteria of the 1890s"
Similar:
frenzy,
wildness,
feverishness,
irrationality,
hysterics,
loss of control,
panic,
panic attack,
alarm,
outburst/fit of agitation,
loss of reason,
fit of madness,
neurosis,
delirium,
derangement,
mania,
distress,
mental distress,
the screaming abdabs/habdabs,
• an old-fashioned term for a psychological disorder characterized by conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms (somatization) or a change in self-awareness (such as a fugue state or selective amnesia).
Origin:
early 19th century: from Latin hystericus (see hysteric).
