prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2012-04-30 07:19 am

conniption

Theme week! -- I just happened to have a string of c-words almost in a row coming up, so might as make use of them.


conniption (kuh-NIP-shuhn) - n., a fit of vexation, rage, or panic.


Also "conniption fit," though I've never heard that in my dialect -- it was often plural when I was growing up, as in "she's got the conniptions." By which you might guess it's an Americanism, though it's also used in Canada: another colorful 19th century mock-Latinate coinage first attested in 1833, origin uncertain.

---L.

[identity profile] prettygoodword.livejournal.com 2012-04-30 03:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Whereas my Ohio-born parents never used "fit" with it, nor did our Appalachian neighbors.

---L.