Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Laughing or crying for a prolonged period of time.
- adjective Informal Extremely funny.
- adjective Of, characterized by, or arising from hysteria. No longer in clinical use.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Same as
hysteric , and the more common form.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective colloq. Extremely funny.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of, or arising from
hysteria . - adjective Having, or
prone to havinghysterics . - adjective Provoking
uncontrollable laughter .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective marked by excessive or uncontrollable emotion
- adjective characterized by or arising from psychoneurotic hysteria
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Some of the little folks we watch grow up to be young women, and occasionally one of them gets nervous, what we call hysterical, and then that girl will begin to play all sorts of pranks, -- to lie and cheat, perhaps, in the most unaccountable way, so that she might seem to a minister a good example of total depravity.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860 Various
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The mental benefits to children of all ages through the contact with animals by far exceed the dangers of what I call a hysterical reaction.
Daniels Counter. 2009
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I find the term hysterical, and personally, I don’t think we use it nearly enough here in the colonies.
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Only slightly less hysterical is his description of why the city has an urban renewal agency:
Another priceless comedy moment from the O (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009
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I was at the airport, in hysterical tears, heartbroken, knowing that she was just too sick to make it through my 20 hour plane ride.
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Following thanks to Janet Reid, just collapsed in hysterical laughter from the start.
Important Lessons For The Week; Or, Thank God That's Almost Over 2009
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You should have inserted a pause right there to give the audience time to collapse in hysterical laughter.
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Enjoy the crowned one†™ s antics in hysterical tales as he gets mixed up with weird science experiments, football foul-ups, and his cousin, Souphead!
Archie Sneak Peek of the Week | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009
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Stranger still, the root of hysterical is the same as the root of hysterectomy: huster, from the Greek, for womb.
'Dollhouse' recap: Momma's got a brand new bag of crazy | EW.com 2009
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As the anchor was hanging up on her, Brenda was in hysterical tears and pleading for her life.
Almost A Third Of Poll Think Harper Is A Liar « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2008
thunderfoot commented on the word hysterical
Its funny because its uterus.
December 1, 2006
kewpid commented on the word hysterical
A rather misogynistic term.
May 22, 2008
oroboros commented on the word hysterical
Funny v. terrified.
May 24, 2008
yaybob commented on the word hysterical
I realize that this isn’t a humor site, but I had this material prepared for another purpose, and I thought that I’d share it here. These are three YouTube videos, all pretty funny in my estimation. Hopefully, at least one will be unfamiliar to you. The last two are a little ethnic, but I think – at least I hope - not offensive.
You likely have always wondered what the hell lyrics Joe Cocker was singing to A Little Help From My Friends at Woodstock, because they sure as hell aren't the ones everybody else is singing. At last a transcript is available. If only John Belushi had lived to see it.
Continuing in the same vein is this East Indian music video with somebody's interpretation of what the Hindu words sound like in English. This one's a keeper, too. For lack of a better name, here is “My Loony Bun Is Fine, Benny Lava�?
Everybody likes hymns, and with the holidays fast approaching, what could be more timely and welcome. Here's O-mazing Grace (how sweet the sound!). Nobody's going to ever figure these lyrics out. It's bad from the beginning, but don't quit it early. OG teases us at 1:39 with a taste of what is to come, but he doesn’t really takes it up until 2:08. And stay for the riveting finale, beginning around 3:00! This is truly one of the worst musical performances ever, bar none. Truly awful, but stunningly funny.
December 10, 2008