neurasthenia
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˌnʊə.rəˈsθi.ni.ə/
- Archaic
:
neurasthenia
- After working long hours without rest, she realized she was experiencing symptoms of neurasthenia.
Examples
-
Medical discourse, too, substantiated fears of modern urban life, identifying neurasthenia as an affliction affecting both men and women of "the indoor-living and brain-working classes." In boys, the disorder was treated with outdoor physical exercise.
Academic text (1996) -
Likewise, a San Francisco doctor found that "Neurasthenia or various nervous disorders are especially common among school children, and near the close of each term of school, it is the experience of almost every practitioner to see a number of cases" (Ward 298).
Academic text (2014) -
You are suffering from neurasthenia.
-
"The more active the mind, the greater the necessity for sleep" -- a clear link to the new literature on neurasthenia and the stress of modern life.
Academic text (1996) -
Attention to neurasthenia in the 1880s called forth new concern for the adequacy of sleep.
Academic text (1996) -
Max Nordau incorporated neurasthenia into his etiology of degeneration, linking it to the negative forces of urban life.
Academic text (1993) -
The doctor explained that neurasthenia was once thought to be caused by nerve exhaustion and could drain both the body and mind.
-
Historical texts often described neurasthenia as a common condition among those facing extreme stress during the industrial age.
Synonyms
78
3.6
Extreme physical or mental tiredness after hard work
1
7.4
Extreme mental and physical tiredness after long stress or worry
1
4.4
A feeling of being tired after long thinking or stress
1
6.0
A very tired mind after long thinking or a lot of stress
A feeling of great weakness and tiredness
Being very tired so you cannot sleep and feel restless or easily annoyed
Antonyms
How Exhausted
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Neurasthenia comes from Greek parts neur- meaning 'nerve' and -asthenia meaning 'weakness', so it originally meant 'weak nerves'. That's why the word was used for long-term tiredness and mental exhaustion that people once thought came from worn-out nerves.