A medical condition of partial nervous exhaustion or weakness affecting one side of the body, combining neurological and fatigue symptoms.
From 'hemi-' (half) plus 'neurasthenia', which combines Greek 'neuron' (nerve) and 'astheneia' (weakness). This late 19th-century term reflected the medical obsession with cataloging nerve-related fatigue conditions.
In the Victorian era, doctors were convinced that modern life caused 'neurasthenia'—basically chronic tiredness—and they created dozens of half-versions like this one to describe asymmetrical fatigue patterns, which we now know were mostly misdiagnosed anxiety!
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