Hypochondria
/ˌhaɪpəˈkɒndriə/noun
Persistent anxiety about having a serious illness, held despite reassurance.
The Greek roots
Literally: “the parts under the cartilage”
The story of the word
ὑποχόνδρια named a region of the body: the soft parts under the cartilage of the breastbone, upper abdomen, where ancient medicine put the spleen and blamed it for black bile. Melancholy with no visible cause therefore got the name of the place it was thought to come from. English had the anatomy by the late 14th century, a vague illness by the 1660s, and the anxious modern sense by the 19th. Clinicians now say illness anxiety disorder, partly because the old word had turned into an insult.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- late 14th century
Same family
In a sentence
Two hours of searching symptoms online is not research, it is hypochondria with a browser.
His hypochondria was funny to everyone except the receptionist who booked the appointments.