noun / adjective
hypochondriac
high-puh-KAHN-dree-ak/hˌaɪpʌkˈɑndriæk/
Excessively worried about having an illness, or a person with this worry.
The hypochondriac continues checking her pulse despite the doctor's reassuring examination.
Etymology
The region “under the cartilage” of the ribs was once considered a source of melancholy. A hypochondriac was therefore first a melancholy person, before the meaning narrowed to someone excessively worried about illness.
In context
I'm an absolutely committed hypochondriac the only time at medical school that I really relaxed was when I did Obstetrics and Gynecology at last some illnesses that I definitely didn't have
More examples
- The novel portrays the character's hypochondriac fears with sympathy.
- She dislikes being dismissed as a hypochondriac when she asks for help.
- The anxious hypochondriac repeatedly fears a serious illness.
Forms
hypochondriac · hypochondriacs
Similar words
- worrier
- A broader term without the specific focus on illness.
- health-anxious
- Health-anxious describes persistent illness-related worry without the older label hypochondriac.