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

But ought this excess of nervous erethism to be referred necessarily to the peculiar nature of the Urning?

From A Problem in Modern Ethics being an inquiry into the phenomenon of sexual inversion, addressed especially to Medical Psychologists and Jurists by Symonds, John Addington

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)

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

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)

This is probably in part due to a deliberate attempt to prolong the act in the East, and in part to a greater nervous erethism among Westerns.

From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy by Ellis, Havelock