One meaning (I am personally not very familiar with) of the adjective hysterical is:
- causing unrestrained laughter; very funny:
Oh, that joke is hysterical! (Dictionary.com)
- No other European language, as far as I know, uses "hysterical" with the meaning of "very funny", and the term has definitely a negative connotation.
According to Etymonline this connotation of hysterical is from the late '30s:
- Meaning "very funny" (by 1939) is from the notion of uncontrollable fits of laughter.
The following extract comments on the origin of the meaning "very funny" but suggests that this connotation is debatable and should be avoided:
- It's true that hysterical "funny" is not especially ancient. The OED didn't add a listing for the sense until 1993, with the earliest example from Mario Pei in 1969: "To describe something as really funny, a woman will use 'hysterical'." As, indeed, Elizabeth Janeway did in her 1943 novel, “The Walsh Girls”:
- She had never seen anything so funny in the world as Alice's face when Connie called her a bitch. It was the funniest thing that could have happened. It was hysterical.
Its connotation appears to derive from the earlier expression: hysterically funny:
Hysterically funny, the long form of our "hilarious" hysterical, shows up quite a bit earlier. This example from an 1886 short story may be transitional – the narrator is both trying to amuse a young woman and being driven slightly crazy:
- My behaviour was often fatuously absurd. Anon I became hysterically funny. Altogether I compared very unfavourably with the bright and facile Stephen.
but its usage should be avoided:
Don’t use it to mean "funny," she (Mignon Fogarty),advised in "The Grammar Devotional" (2009). "Hysterical means 'excited.'" And she made hilarious/hysterical one of the confusable word pairs in her 2011 book, "Grammar Girl's 101 Misused Words You'll Never Confuse Again." "People will say 'hysterical' when they think something is funny," she told Neal Conan in an NPR broadcast.
- But hysterical actually means excited in a negative way … when you're saying someone is hysterical, it's like, you know, hysterical laughter after a bank robbery when everyone is freaking out.
Questions:
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How common is the usage of the term hysterical meaning “funny” in BrE and AmE?
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Does hysterical actually carry a negative connotation as suggested in the above extract, or does it only convey a neutral meaning?
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Is its usage currently on the downtrend?
Best Answer
Despite your tags, you asked how common the funny meaning in British English.
Hysterical would normally mean very funny in the more common uses in British English, although it does depend on the context. In common speech, I doubt most people would understand it to mean anything else, despite its history.
That context is everything, however. If there's any hint of humour, then it's clearly one meaning; if there's the whiff of madness, it's another. Consider:
(with apologies, as this is clearly a ridiculous scenario, as anyone who's ever seen a Ben Stiller film would attest).
vs
vs
The first of these would universally be understood to mean "it was very funny"; the second is clearly suggesting that he was emotionally out of control; the third is ambiguous, as it could mean either. You'd need to decide from the rest of the conversation.
There are historical, sexist connotations - the "women are hysterical" view (as per the womb comment and here) which may change understanding, dependent on the listener. Consider:
vs
Depending on their prejudices, people could be more likely to understand the former as "emotionally over the top" and the latter as "very funny". Welcome to the modern world.
EDIT
You're still concerned about this topic, so I'll address your questions very specifically - at least, from a UK perspective.
> How common is the usage of the term hysterical meaning “funny” in BrE and AmE?
Very. Most British people would understand hysterical to mean funny as a primary definition, despite what dictionaries say. US preference is hilarious for that use, although that sounds slightly sarcastic to UK ears.
> Does hysterical actually carry a negative connotation as suggested in the above extract, or does it only convey a neutral meaning?
Nothing negative about it (again, BrE). As per the sarcasm comment, it's perhaps even less negative than some other options.
> Is its usage currently on the downtrend?
I see no downtrend in common usage in the UK. Ngram suggests a slight decline in overall use of the word (i.e. whatever the meaning) in both BrE and AmE, but not significantly. Specific to the "funny" use, though, that's certainly not something that's born out in everyday speech in my experience.
Ngram UK
Ngram US
... with a slightly higher incidence in all-English fiction usage.