Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of fantod. To have “the fantods” is to be in a state of nervousness, distress, or anxiety.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an ill-defined state of irritability and distress

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The first known record of the word is from 1839, in the book Adventures of Harry Franco by Charles Biggs.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Some of the words people post on here give me the howling fantods.

    January 5, 2007

  • Main Entry: fan·tod

    Variant(s): also fan·tad

    Function: noun

    Inflected Form(s): -s

    Etymology: perhaps alteration of fantigue

    1 usually fantods plural a : a state of irritability, fidget, and tension; sometimes : a state of acute worry and distress b : a state of bodily or mental disorder especially when ill-defined and more or less chronic

    2 sometimes fantods plural a : an instance or occurrence of the fantods b : a violent or irrational outburst

    3 : a fidgety fussy officer of a ship

    Citation:

    "fantod." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (6 Jan. 2007).

    January 6, 2007

  • hee, hee!

    September 24, 2007

  • A mythical disease causing melancholy, nervousness, depression; The Willies.

    July 16, 2008

  • JM is beside himself, in flaming fantods, screeching histrionics in the direst of foreboding and doom – he watched the Evening News!

    February 19, 2009

  • Shouldn't DFW be added into the examples?

    May 20, 2010

  • "These was all nice pictures, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take to them, because if ever I was down a little, they always give me the fan-tods." -- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884. The earliest citation in the Dictionary of American Regional English is from 1876.

    June 9, 2010

  • Congratulations to fantods for making it onto the 2013 Wayne State Word Warriors list of words that should be used more often. Seen here.

    January 31, 2013

  • Didn't David Foster Wallace use it enough times to last us the next couple of decades?

    February 2, 2013