From hysteric + -al, from Latin hystericus, from Ancient Greek ὑστερικός, from ῠ̔στέρᾱ ("womb").

• IPA: /hɪˈstɛɹɪkəl/

hysterical

1. Of, or arising from hysteria.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Letters Restored”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC ↗, page 221 ↗:

     Henrietta gasped for breath; but she swallowed down the hysterical emotion, and signed with her hand for Walter to go on.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC ↗:

     An event of this nature, a marriage, or a refusal, or a proposal, thrills through a whole household of women, and sets all their hysterical sympathies at work.

2. Having, or prone to having hysterics.
3. Provoking uncontrollable laughter.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […] ; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

• hysteric
• hysterics
• hysteria

• French: hystérique
• German: hysterisch
• Italian: isterico
• Portuguese: histérico
• Russian: истери́ческий

• French: hystérique, surexcité
• German: hysterisch
• Portuguese: histérico
• Russian: истеричный

• French: hystérique, tordant
• Italian: esilarante, da morire dal ridere
• Russian: уморительный