paroxysm

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 22, 2024 is:

paroxysm • \PAIR-uk-sih-zum\ • noun

Paroxysm is a formal word that refers to a sudden strong feeling or uncontrollable expression of emotion. In medical use, paroxysm refers to a sudden attack or increase of symptoms of a disease that often occurs repeatedly.

// The comedy special sent us into paroxysms of laughter.

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Examples:

"[Danny] Ray was part of [James] Brown's cape routine for 45 years, assisting him on the song 'Please, Please, Please.' The Godfather of Soul would collapse in a paroxysm of feigned grief during the song, being led away by a solicitous Ray, who draped the singer in a cape. Brown would take a few steps, then return to the microphone. Sometimes, they eschewed the cape, and Brown was merely led away." — Bruce Haring, Deadline, 3 Feb. 2021

Did you know?

Paroxysm didn't just burst onto the scene recently; its roots go back to ancient Greek. The word ultimately erupted from the Greek verb paroxynein, which means "to stimulate." (Oxynein, a parent of paroxynein, means "to provoke" and comes from oxys, a Greek word for "sharp.") In its earliest known English uses in the 15th century, paroxysm referred to a sudden attack or increase of symptoms of a disease—such as pain, coughing, shaking, etc.—that often occur again and again. This sense is still in use, but paroxysm soon took on a broader and now much more common sense referring to an outburst, especially a dramatic physical or emotional one, as in "paroxysms of rage/laughter/joy/delight/guilt."