this one troubled me for a long while, until I finally discovered this:
the [truly] worthless [or not] word for the day is: tarassis
[fr. Gk tarasso(?), to trouble the mind, confound,
agitate, disturb, disquiet] /tuh RASS iss/
male hysteria (?)
""Hysteria" (hustera, womb) is a form of neurosis which,
strictly speaking, ought to apply to women only. But males
suffer from the malady, too, and the same term is used to
designate it. In 1886 Sanoaville de Lachèse proposed that
the word "tarassis" (tarasso, to agitate, disturb, trouble)
be used to designate hysteria in the male, but in
spite of its appropriateness the term has not received general
acceptance. It is not always the superior scientific term
that succeeds in winning approval." [EA]
- Oscar Nybakken,
Greek and Latin in Scientific Terminology (1959)
-tsuwm
