globus hystericus

[ gloh-buhs hi-ster-i-kuhs ]

noun

, Psychiatry.

1. the sensation of having a lump in the throat or difficulty in swallowing for which no medical cause can be found.

globus hystericus

/ hɪˈstɛrɪkəs /

noun

1. the technical name for a lump in the throat See lump 1

Word History and Origins

Origin of globus hystericus¹

1790–95; < New Latin: lump of hysteria; globe, hysterical

Example Sentences

She’s on her way to the doctor - actually, a New Age practitioner of color therapy - because she suffers from globus hystericus, the anxiety-induced feeling of a lump in her throat that makes it hard to swallow.

From Washington Times

With all submission, this is precisely the illusion which is absent, and it is perfectly possible for the most sympathetic reader to peruse the balanced outpourings of "Fulbert's niece" without the slightest tendency to that globus hystericus which all persons of sensibility must desire to experience.

From Project Gutenberg

This spasmodic dysphagia includes such widely varying conditions as the “globus hystericus” of neurasthenic women, the spasm of chronic alcoholics, and the affection known as cardiospasm or “hiatal œsophagismus.”

From Project Gutenberg

The globus hystericus, salivation, diab�tes, and other inversions of motion attending hysteric paroxysms, seem to depend on the want of irritability of those parts of the body, because they are attended with cold extremities, and general debility, and are relieved by wine, opium, steel, and flesh diet; that is, by any additional stimulus.

From Project Gutenberg

Medicines producing cold sweats, palpitation of the heart, globus hystericus; as violent evacuations, some poisons, fear, anxiety, act by inverting the natural order of the vascular motions.

From Project Gutenberg