erethism

American  

[er-uh-thiz-uhm] / ˈɛr əˌθɪz əm /

noun

Physiology.

1. an unusual or excessive degree of irritability or stimulation in an organ or tissue.

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erethism British  

/ ˈɛrɪˌθɪzəm /

noun

1. physiol an abnormally high degree of irritability or sensitivity in any part of the body

2. psychiatry

   1. a personality disorder resulting from mercury poisoning

   2. an abnormal tendency to become aroused quickly, esp sexually, as the result of a verbal or psychic stimulus

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Other Word Forms

• erethic adjective
• erethismic adjective
• erethistic adjective
• erethitic adjective
• hypererethism noun

Etymology

Origin of erethism

1790–1800; < French éréthisme < Greek erethismós irritation, equivalent to ereth ( ízein ) to irritate + -ismos -ism

Example Sentences

From the beginning, and often for a long period antecedent to the appearance of cardiac symptoms, the subjects of Graves' disease present a considerable mental erethism.

From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by ?Malley, Austin

He was not really tormented except by a cerebral erethism.

From Là-bas by Wallace, Keene

It is employed without success in local phlegmorrhagies of the lungs; but it almost invariably cures those chronic catarrhs, which depend on a state of erethism of the mucous lining of the bronchiæ.

From North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 by Bache, Franklin

The intense excitement of the events had no doubt left my perceptive powers in a state of erethism.

From The War of the Worlds by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

They lose control over their vasomotor system to some extent as a result of this systemic erethism.

From Psychotherapy by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)