Paranoia

Paranoia

Noun · /ˌpær.əˈnɔɪ.ə/

Definition

(1) (Psychiatry) a mental condition characterised by delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self-importance — a type of psychosis. (2) In popular use: unjustified suspicion and mistrust of other people; a tendency to believe that one is being watched, plotted against, or mistreated without reasonable evidence. (3) Colloquially: a state of unfounded anxiety or excessive worry about threats or hostile intentions.

Origin

From modern Latin paranoia, from Greek paranoia (madness, distraction) — from para (beside, abnormal) + noia, from nous (mind). Paranoia therefore meaning an abnormal state of the mind — a mind that has gone beside itself. The Greek word used in general senses of madness. The clinical sense being developed by German psychiatrists in the nineteenth century, particularly by Emil Kraepelin, who defined paranoia as a specific delusional condition distinguished from schizophrenia. The word entering English in the late nineteenth century in this clinical sense.