• hissy •
Pronunciation: hi-see • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: (US) A temper tantrum, conniption, hysterical outburst, dicky fit, sometimes called a 'hissy fit'.
Notes: Today's is another word like curtsy from courtesy and fancy from fantasy that is a simplification of another word, this time hysterical. Like these words, it clung to several English dialectal vocabularies until it was greeted by several major dictionaries. This word is common in the southern US states; less so elsewhere.
In Play: Hissies are something mostly women throw: "Esmerelda threw a hissy when the waiter brought her cold coffee yesterday." We also pitch them: "When Helen Highwater heard she didn't get the promotion, she pitched a royal hissy, the likes of which had never been seen in the office."
Word History: Today's Good Word came from the phrase 'hissy fit' a reduction of 'hysterical fit'. Hysterical is the adjective for hysteria, based on Greek hystera "womb, uterus", hence the association with women. Hystera was the Greek rendition of PIE udteros "belly", with a consonant cluster [dt] which had to be simplified. Sanskrit kept the [d] in udaram "belly", and Latin, the [t] in uterus "belly, womb". Albanian converted the two in veshkë "kidney"; German did the same to come up with nasalized Wanst "belly, paunch".
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