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hysterical :  affected by or deriving from wildly uncontrolled emotion, Janet became hysterical and began screaming.

Why is the adjective hysterical usually applied to women and rarely to men?

For what it's worth, Google Books shows 42,700 hits for hysterical woman and 2,820 hits for hysterical man, but the fact is I rarely hear hysterical used in reference to men.

J.R.
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    It's not unheard of. In the movie Little Shop of Horrors, Seymour is ranting, and Audrey slaps his face and says "You were hysterical." – Ross Presser Sep 27 '13 at 20:35
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    I rarely hear it used at all, other than as "that was really really funny" (that was hysterical). – Warren P Sep 27 '13 at 20:46
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    It is interesting to note that the word "hysteresis" has nothing to do with the various "uterus words" like "hysterectomy" and "hysterical". It is derived from a different Greek root. – Kaz Sep 28 '13 at 03:32
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    Why does vagina applies mostly to women? This is unfair and politically incorrect in our antipoligamy age. – Val Sep 28 '13 at 06:19
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    @Val: Purely my own opinion, but I rather suspect that in total, "You stupid cnt!"* has been said by and to men more often than by or to women. – FumbleFingers Sep 28 '13 at 19:03

4 Answers4

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Because men can't have hysterectomies. The words "hysterical" and "hysterectomy" share the same root in the word for "uterus". In Victorian times, the root of female issues was theorized to be a non-existent medical condition some physicians called "wandering womb". This now-debunked belief is widely regarded as a form of medical quackery, but on the upside, it led to the invention of the vibrator, which was regarded as a cure for hysteria, especially when wielded by the skilled hands of an expert physician. Because those skilled hands got mighty tired after a half-day of administering treatments to patients, and they needed a break.

Yes, this really happened.

LindaCamillo
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    Linda, I would suggest this answer is good as far as it goes. For clarity (and I'm especially thinking of those who might not see the irony embedded in your answer), I might suggest that you expand it. Yes, I mean into the what should be obvious but might not be to some area of, "but as of course we all know, that theory is hogwash, yet the traces of its influence remain in the preferential usage... etc. etc...." I think you see what I'm getting at. :) – John M. Landsberg Sep 27 '13 at 15:26
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    @JohnM.Landsberg "but as of course we all know, that theory is hogwash,..." Wikipedia in the link posted by LindaBrammer says as much. If there is anyone on ELU who really believes it is a medical condition, Linda's editing will not dissuade them (unfortunately). – Mari-Lou A Sep 27 '13 at 17:36
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    @Mari-LouA Here's how I see it: Lots of our ELL friends might not have the linguistic skills to see past the surface, and could easily misinterpret. Nor will most readers go to the link. And I do believe that people who are merely uninformed or confused can be properly guided in their thinking. You're referring to unrecoverable Neanderthals whose biased attitudes are not amenable to adjustment, and you're right, there are far too many of them, but I never give up trying!! – John M. Landsberg Sep 27 '13 at 19:11
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    I am really unsure what to do now. But I'll edit my answer to make it very clear that there are some ugly historical truths behind this word, and for those reasons, I never actually use it in my spoken English. I find it kind of offensive because of its quack-science connection to the uterus. – LindaCamillo Sep 27 '13 at 20:44
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    I know medical science was comparatively primitive back then, but I think it's a bit misleading to suggest any significant number of Victorian physicians still believed in the ancient Greeks' ideas about "wandering wombs". Just as not many Victorian chemists would have still believed everything was made of various combinations of earth, air, wind, and fire. – FumbleFingers Sep 27 '13 at 21:56
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As pointed out by @Linda, etymologically speaking, hysteria is a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. But very few people think of the word that way when they use it today.

I think OP massively overstates the case regarding how rarely the word hysterical is applied to men. It just so happens "hysterical woman" is a [cliched, sexist] stereotype. With he/she was hysterical, or he's/she's hysterical, for example, the "skew" is closer to 2:1 than OP's 15:1.

Note that by far most common usage in recent decades is the even more figurative informal hysterical = extremely funny...

He was hysterical (about 26,100 results in Google Books)
She was hysterical (99,300)
It was hysterical (280,000)

FumbleFingers
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    +1 because I automatically assumed that a hysterical female is a woman having hysterics, which just goes to show how ingrained that stereotype is in our culture. It's been said that women cannot be funny, might be worthwhile investigating how many "hysterical women" are in actual fact comediennes... – Mari-Lou A Sep 27 '13 at 16:27
  • @Mari-Lou: Your [sexist?!] preconceptions are probably exacerbated by the fact that your knowledge of word meanings derives more from dictionaries/etymology than is the case for the average native speaker. I bet lots of young people who routinely use hysterical = very funny only learnt that meaning by hearing it used in context (they may well not know any other words starting with *hyster-). But I think most hysterical women* really would be women having histrionics (the "funny" sense is usually applied to situations, not people). – FumbleFingers Sep 27 '13 at 16:40
  • I take your point FF, but I feel that your assertion that the funny sense is not often applied to people is "not even wrong" in my experience. – horatio Sep 27 '13 at 16:45
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    I'm not so sure that the expression "she/he was hysterical" is not synonymous with "she/he threw a tantrum". I can imagine a frustrated parent describing their child as such, and I've read stories where men complain of having hysterical wives or girlfriends :). – Mari-Lou A Sep 27 '13 at 16:46
  • @horatio: Your profile doesn't give "age", but I'll hazard a guess that younger speakers might be less likely to use hysterical = neurotic. In which case they might be less bothered about the potential for ambiguity in a statement like "John was hysterical last night". But given *it* occurs more than twice as often as *he/she* combined in my links above, I think "not even wrong" seriously overstates the position. – FumbleFingers Sep 27 '13 at 17:10
  • For the record, I was born before the moon landings, but my age has nothing to do with it. I think you hint at it in your own example: "john/bob/betty/sue was hysterical" will not show up in your "he/she" sample searches. "(the "funny" sense is usually applied to situations, not people)" is a horrible overstatement at best. – horatio Sep 27 '13 at 17:15
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    @horatio: There are 19 instances of "John was hysterical", and 12 of "Jane was hysterical" in Google Books. On a quick glance through, I'd say less than half-a-dozen are in the "funny" sense. You'll note that I'm consistently backing up what I say with "evidence" of a sort, even if we both accept Google Books isn't always reliable. You offer nothing except your (possibly, highly localised) opinion. – FumbleFingers Sep 27 '13 at 17:30
  • @Mari-LouA I agree with FumbleFingers; I'm 25 with English as my first language, and "she was hysterical" naturally translates in my head as "she was hilarious". The only other words that pop into mind that start with the same phonemes are "history" and the "Histeria!" cartoon. – Izkata Sep 27 '13 at 18:25
  • Break down your data for "she was" etc by meaning and context and then do a search for all possible names, and add in a corpus of spoken language and you might have a basis for your assertion. In your defense it was an off-hand parenthetical remark – horatio Sep 27 '13 at 18:30
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    @horatio: There's a limit to how much "original research" I'm prepared to put into this! You can agree or disagree, but I maintain that John is a hysterical guy isn't particularly common compared to, say, John is a very funny guy. You're more likely to hear the "funny" sense in constructions like John was hysterical last night** (describing John on a specific occasion). It's not common to describe someone's ongoing, consistent characteristic as "hysterical", only some particular thing they did. – FumbleFingers Sep 27 '13 at 18:40
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    @FumbleFingers I am 24 and a native English speaker. I partly agree with you; 'hysterical' when used with a meaning of 'funny' is often used to describe an occasion. However, my first thought when I hear 'she was hysterical' (so non occasion usage) is that she was 'out of control', 'in a panic', or some other sense of the word in that direction. I think this has to do with how it's used in popular movies. Since most references, that I can think of, to that word in movies relate to the 'crazy woman' connotation. – Ryan Sep 27 '13 at 20:13
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    @ryan: I don't know what I might have said that you don't agree with - I completely agree everything you've said there. A hysterical/neurotic person is probably somewhat like that all the time, but people are usually only hysterically funny at particular times. Apparently there are 1000s of instances of she is hysterical in Google Books. I only checked the first couple of pages, but they're all for neurotic, not funny. – FumbleFingers Sep 27 '13 at 21:43
  • I like your answer, that said, you do have a habit of making dogmatic statements. For example: "But very few people think of the word that way when they use it today." Well, maybe, that's true for people aged 25 or lower. But as Linda's answer testifies, a lot of people do associate hysteria/losing self-control with hysterical. And I seriously doubt nowadays * hysterical woman* is used as a compliment i.e. she made me laugh. In fact I looked at the link you posted (as you did), four pages, and not one reference was positive. – Mari-Lou A Sep 28 '13 at 08:36
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    @Mari-Lou: Obviously most reasonably-educated people are perfectly well aware of the "female-based" etymology. I'm just saying they don't consciously think of the uterine connection when they use the word hysterical, regardless of whether they mean "neurotic" or "funny". Note that *neurotic woman* is over twice as common as neurotic man, but etymologically speaking, there's no "sexist" element to neurosis. The main reason "hysterical woman" is more common than "hysterical man" (but not so common as OP suggests) is probably just that women are more often "publicly emotional". – FumbleFingers Sep 28 '13 at 14:38
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As an addendum to the "hysterical meaning funny" discussion:

The best practical definition of hysteria is "someone that lets fear/any other strong emotion break out-of-control, and then starts to look for a cause". The "looks for a cause" part means autosuggestion. An example is that people react irrationally and out of proportions: cry, laugh, etc.

I believe that's the origin of its usage to mean funny, e.g. "John was hysterical last night". The exaggerated actions of John certainly caused people around him to react by laughing/smiling. There are many movies that make jokes over hysteria (Airplane! comes to my mind) exploiting those irrational and exaggerated reactions.

In some cases, hysteria can lead to a "conversion disorder" which is also called "conversion hysteria", and is essentially when a person develops physical symptoms based on psychological effects.

As to why it is used mostly in reference to women, see FumbleFingers' or LindaBrammer's answers.

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Fabricio Araujo
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This is the origin of hysterical (adj.)

1610s, "characteristic of hysteria," from Latin hystericus "of the womb," from Greek hysterikos "of the womb, suffering in the womb," from hystera "womb".

The word hysteria originates from the Greek word for uterus, as it was thought this disorder (eg. anxiety, nervousness) could only be found in women.

In Ancient Greece, the womb was regarded as a living creature in a woman's body, which wanders around and causes the disorder. The cure for hysteria was to put the womb back to its correct place by inhaling some good smells.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, people continued believing the disorder was related to the womb, though the reasons changed a little: Hysteria was now believed to be due to retention of fluids in the uterus, sexual deprivation, or still by the tendency of the uterus to wander around the female body causing irritability and suffocation. This is the time the word hysterical emerged.

By the Industrial Era, people recognized that hysteria is a psychological condition rather than a physical one, and that men can also be hysterical. The word hysteria emerged in 1801 and started to have a general sense of "unhealthy emotion or excitement" by 1839.

In modern time, the word hysterical was used against the campaign for women to fight for rights and empowerment.

Oliver Mason
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Hegwin
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