hysterical

From hysteric +‎ -al, from Latin hystericus, from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός (husterikós, “suffering in the womb, hysterical”), from ῠ̔στέρᾱ (hustérā, “womb”).

• IPA^(key): /hɪˈstɛɹɪkəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ɛɹɪkəl

hysterical (comparative more hysterical, superlative most hysterical)

1. Of, or arising from hysteria.
   • 1837, L E L, “The Letters Restored”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. , volume III, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 221:

     Henrietta gasped for breath; but she swallowed down the hysterical emotion, and signed with her hand for Walter to go on.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in Vanity Fair , London: Bradbury and Evans , published 1848, →OCLC:

     An event of this nature, a marriage, or a refusal, or a proposal, thrills through a whole household of women, and sets all their hysterical sympathies at work.

2. Having, or prone to having hysterics.
3. Provoking uncontrollable laughter.
   • 1918, W B Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […] ; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

   • 2016 February 6, James Zogby, “Israel’s prickliness blocks the long quest for peace”, in The National‎:

     There is a certain irony in all of this because in their hysterical use of charge of “double standard” – that Israel is being “singled out for criticism”– it is Israel’s supporters who are themselves guilty of a “double standard”, since, if they were to have their way, it is Israel that would be singled out as the only country that cannot be criticised.

• For usage caution, see hysteria § Usage notes.
• Like many terms that start with a non-silent h but have emphasis on their second syllable, some people precede hysterical with an, others with a.

• hysteric
• hysterics
• hysteria

• “hysterical”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “hysterical”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.