Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The persistent conviction that one is or is likely to become ill, often involving symptoms when illness is neither present nor likely, and persisting despite reassurance and medical evidence to the contrary. Also called hypochondriasis.
- n. Plural of hypochondrium.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A morbid condition characterized by exaggerated uneasiness and anxiety as to one's health, and also by extreme general depression; low spirits: in this sense often abbreviated hypo, or formerly hyp, hip. See hypo. hip. Hypochondria, real or affected, was formerly also called spleen, vapors, and other vague names. Also hypochondriacism, hypochondriasis, hypochondriasm.
- n. Plural of hypochondrium.
Wiktionary
- n. medicine A psychological disorder characterized by excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness.
- n. anatomy Plural form of hypochondrium.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Med.) An excessive concern about one's own health, particularly a morbid worry about illnesses which a person imagines are affecting him, often focusing on specific symptoms; also called
hypochondriasis .
WordNet 3.0
- n. chronic and abnormal anxiety about imaginary symptoms and ailments
Etymologies
- From Medieval Latin hypochondria ("the morbid condition so called, supposed to have its seat in the upper part of the abdomen"), from New Latin hypochondrium (see hypochondrium for more). (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin, abdomen, from Greek hupokhondria, pl. of hupokhondrion, abdomen (held to be the seat of melancholy), from neuter of hupokhondrios, under the cartilage of the breastbone : hupo-, hypo- + khondros, cartilage; see ghrendh- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I’m lucky in that hypochondria is the one thing I don’t suffer from.”
“In fact, hypochondria is the one thing I don’t suffer from. trigger points legs and hips; slouching hip pain; copper for hip joint pain; right hip aches in bed; something wrong with my hip down to my knee; I have two extra bones in my hip; pain down right leg also hip;”
Another week’s worth of search junk « We Don't Count Your Own Visits To Your Blog
“Another problem, O'Neill says, is that health anxiety – which used to be called hypochondria – is not taken seriously.”
The Guardian: Health anxiety is not a joke – it can ruin lives
“It seems more like an extreme manifestation of something along the lines of what's often called hypochondria or somatoform pain disorder -- which is not at all the same as 'faking it,' but still nothing like what goes on in gender dysphoria -- and has more, in fact, in common with eating disorders generally.”
I learn from US TV (gasp!) and even more from my E ticket ride.
“When you're a doctor it's not called hypochondria -- it's called experience.”
“I guess the hypochondria was her only means of getting attention from my father.”
“After puberty, and during early adolescence, when a certain amount of knowledge has been acquired, we leave youth free to learn lies from advertisements, carefully calculated to foster the tendency to hypochondria, which is often associated with such matters.”
“I have had a pretty severe return this summer of that melancholy, or hypochondria, which is inherent in my constitution ....”
“Sometimes it manifests itself in the milder forms of hallucination, or monomania, but in the majority of cases, the patient sinks into a despondent hypochondria, which is many times followed, sooner or later, by a raving mania.”
“Whether you call it hypochondria or American exceptionalism, the numbers are plain: Americans lead the world in diagnoses of mental health problems.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hypochondria’.
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The Latin Doctor is Greek to me
Biology Students, Gladiators, Devil Dogs & Harry Potter
et tu, semper fidelis, carpe diem, cui bono, pons asinorum, limbus, e pluribus unum, sine qua non, quidnunc, lacus oblivionis, quincunx, experimentum crucis and 128 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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I speak Warhol
Words that make me think of Andy Warhol, for whatever reason.
pop, gee, factory, superstar, screen test, silver, silkscreen, Sleep, soup, Marilyn Monroe, speed, voyeur and 23 more...
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disorder (psychological)
various psychological disorders, imbalances. supposed reasons for the mentally insane. crazy talk yo.
loosely connected to traits (bad)
( randomness, descriptive, psycho...crazy, schizophrenia, narcissism, obsessive compulsion, anxiety, attention deficit, depression, bipolar, mania, synesthesia, psychosis, autism and 12 more...
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five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 941 more...
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Spelling Bee list 2011
Abalone, ablution, absolution, aboriginally, abstemious, academician, acclamation, accommodation, acculturation, acetic, acetone, acme and 590 more...
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danallison's Words
polysemy, self-reliance, savor, amenities, vintage, proverbial, colloquial, assemblage, ubiquitous, jocular, prosaic, perambulation and 443 more...
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Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
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Odessa's Words
defenestration, decathect, effulgent, taciturn, ataraxia, coprophagous, nyctitropic, pernicious, paradox, anachronism, synesthesia, cacophony and 223 more...
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Words in "Bird by Bird" That I Don't ...
The Book is "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. (Great book!)
stroboscopic, primal, spiny, blenny, effectual, jocular, wayward, estimable, luxuriate, gelatinous, bedlam, sophomoric and 45 more...
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Big Book of Words
hone, jibe, limn, tome, intrepid, augur, caveat, encomium, ephemera, factotum, gravitas, impediment and 83 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hypochondria.
reesetee *sits up* Jan 31, 2009
artoparts The term hypochondria was coined by the ancient Greeks from Hypo = below + Chondros = cartilage (of the ribs). It was their opinion that the set of symptoms originated just below the ribs (i.e. in the upper abdomen). So, sit up straight and don't slouch. They also believed that the psychological symptoms which often accompanied the ailment were the result of the illness. See: cyberchondria. Jan 30, 2009
whichbe la maladie sans maladie May 12, 2008