epidemic hysteria
- noun
- /ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk hɪˈstɪəriə/
- Specialized
:
histeria epidémica
- Social media can sometimes accelerate the spread of epidemic hysteria by amplifying fear and rumors.
Examples
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Reports of illness in the school led to an incident of epidemic hysteria among students and teachers.
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A sudden outbreak of epidemic hysteria caused panic throughout the city.
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The town experienced an outbreak of epidemic hysteria during the festival.
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Many people fell victim to epidemic hysteria after the news spread.
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A sudden outbreak of epidemic hysteria caused panic throughout the city.
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Reports of illness in the school led to an incident of epidemic hysteria among students.
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The town experienced an outbreak of epidemic hysteria during the festival.
Synonyms
394
2.7
A sudden strong feeling of fear that makes you lose control
82
6.1
An extreme, uncontrolled feeling of fear or excitement
11
6.1
Many people feel strong fear and act in a panicked, irrational way
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'epidemic' conveys ‘widespread’ and 'hysteria' denotes extreme collective emotional reaction, so the phrase simply means widespread or community-wide hysteria. This modifier+noun pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Epidemic hysteria uses a clear image: epidemic is a disease that spreads fast, and hysteria is strong, unreasonable fear. When one person's 'panic' is copied by others and the fear 'spreads' through a town or group, you get 'epidemic hysteria', meaning many people showing the same extreme, often 'unreasonable' behavior.