conniption

[prettygoodword]

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.

Comments

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

My Missouri born and raised Grandmother always said "Now don't have a conniption fit over nothing."

Regional usage of words is fascinating.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Whereas my Ohio-born parents never used "fit" with it, nor did our Appalachian neighbors.

---L.

[lxndr.livejournal.com]

I've never heard it plural. (I was raised in California by a Hungarian immigrant who learned English mostly from southerners.) I have heard 'conniption fit' though.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

More data!

[ersatz-read.livejournal.com]

Interesting...my Iowa family also said "conniption fit".

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Now I'm wondering where between Iowa and Ohio the border of usage is.

---L.