Both Uses of
hysteria
in
Middlemarch
- Clinging to him she fell into hysterical sobbings and cries, and for the next hour he did nothing but soothe and tend her.†
Chpt 8 *hysterical = exceedingly funny (resulting in uncontrollable laughter); or exhibiting excessive, uncontrollable emotion
- Rosamond, with an overmastering pang, as if a wound within her had been probed, burst into hysterical crying as she had done the day before when she clung to her husband.†
Chpt 8
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)