apoplexy

Late Middle English from Old French apoplexie, from Late Latin apoplexia, from Ancient Greek ἀποπληξία (apoplēxía, “madness; apoplexy, paralysis”), from ἀποπλήσσω (apoplḗssō, “to cripple by a stroke”) +‎ -ία (-ía, nominal suffix). See plague.

• IPA^(key): /ˈæp.ə.plɛk.si/

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apoplexy (countable and uncountable, plural apoplexies)

1. (medicine, dated) Unconsciousness or incapacity resulting from a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke.
   1. (medicine) Gross hemorrhage into a cavity or into the substance of an organ.
2. (informal) A state of intense and almost uncontrollable anger.
   • 1983 August 13, Jim Wilson, “Learning From AIDS”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 5, page 6:

     Ten Straight White Males die of a mysterious disease and the nation has apoplexy — Headlines — TV Reports — Sympathy. MONEY comes pouring in and there was no discussion about where to find it.

The term is now usually limited to cerebral apoplexy, or loss of consciousness due to effusion of blood or other lesion within the substance of the brain; but it is sometimes extended to denote an effusion of blood into the substance of any organ; as, apoplexy of the lung.

• “apoplexy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “apoplexy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “apoplexy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.