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

They are irritable in the nervous sense and excitable, and this erethism increases their nervous instability which responds by craving further excitement.

From Religion And Health by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)

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)

He was not really tormented except by a cerebral erethism.

From Là-bas by Wallace, Keene

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)

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