The act of restraining, holding back, or suppressing; the state of being inhibited.
From cohibit + -ion suffix. This noun developed in medieval Latin and entered English through formal legal and medical writing to denote the abstract concept of restraint or suppression.
Medieval doctors believed that emotions caused by cohibition—suppressed feelings—would literally turn into physical illness, which is actually closer to the truth than they realized, since modern psychosomatic medicine confirms stress causes real disease.
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