Plural of erethism; conditions of abnormal excitement or irritability of the nerves or body.
Greek 'erethizein' (to irritate) plus the noun-forming suffix '-ism,' creating a term for the state or condition itself rather than just the quality. The plural form reflects multiple instances or varieties of such conditions.
Victorian doctors catalogued different types of erethism in their patients—mercurial erethism, cerebral erethism, spinal erethism—each supposedly requiring different treatments, showing how creative medical terminology could mask incomplete understanding.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.