Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Euthymia
/juːˈθaɪmiə/noun
A settled, untroubled mood, and in psychiatry the normal range between depression and mania.
The Greek roots
εὖ
eû
well, good
θυμός
thymós
spirit, temper
Literally: “good spirit”
The story of the word
Democritus wrote a book called Περὶ εὐθυμίης, on cheerfulness, and treated a steady good mood as the point of a life rather than a lucky accident of one. Seneca translated the title as De Tranquillitate Animi and admitted the Greek word had no Latin equal. Psychiatry now uses it narrowly, for the stretch between episodes in bipolar disorder when mood sits where it should.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
dysthymiaalexithymiaeulogyeuphoria
In a sentence
He has been euthymic for two years, which the notes record as euthymia sustained.
The Stoics and the Epicureans both aimed at euthymia and disagreed about everything else.