All 5 Uses of
hysteria
in
1984, by Orwell
- For a moment he was seized by a kind of hysteria.
p. 19.7hysteria = excessive, uncontrollable emotion
- What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship.
p. 133.1
- On the contrary, war hysteria is continuous and universal in all countries, and such acts as raping, looting, the slaughter of children, the reduction of whole populations to slavery, and reprisals against prisoners which extend even to boiling and burying alive, are looked upon as normal, and, when they are committed by one's own side and not by the enemy, meritorious.
p. 186.2
- It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest.
p. 192.8 *hysteria = state of excessive, uncontrolled emotion
- One clear illustration of this is the fact that war hysteria increases in intensity as one rises in the social scale.
p. 215.7
Definition:
a state of excessive, uncontrollable emotion
In addition to being the adjective form of hysteria, the form hysterical can also indicate that something is exceedingly funny (leading to uncontrollable laughter)