A person who constantly worries about having serious illnesses even though they are usually healthy, imagining symptoms that don't really exist.
From Greek 'hypo' (below) and 'khondria' (cartilage of the breastbone). Ancient doctors thought illnesses originated in organs below the ribs, so hypochondria meant excessive worry about these imaginary ailments.
Medieval doctors literally blamed the organs under your ribs for health anxiety—and they were accidentally onto something: the gut really does communicate with the brain in ways they couldn't imagine, making hypochondriacs more physiologically complex than they seem.
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