Hilarious vs. hysterical.

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perhaps this has been done before. I am increasingly ANNOYED by everyone saying that something that is funny is "Hysterical". it's not. it's hilarious. Can everyone in every random place I go please say "it's hysterically funny" or "it's hilarious". please? becuse i am becoming hysterical and it won't be hilarious if I have to hear this again.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i say that all the time. sorry but i don't think it's a habit i can (or even want to) break.

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:33 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.homevideos.com/freezeframes11/Producers74.jpeg

I'm hysterical! I'm hysterical!

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:39 (twenty-one years ago)

but...but..hilarious is just as easy to say, and is the apropos word. I don't understand - why so stubborn when you are wrong?

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:40 (twenty-one years ago)

it's just a word aimurchie - why so tetchy about it? also, it seems to have slipped into the vernacular where i live, so i feel pretty comfortable in my use of it and don't believe it to be "wrong". language is dynamic.

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:41 (twenty-one years ago)

hys·ter·i·cal ( P ) Pronunciation Key (h-str-kl)
adj.
Of, characterized by, or arising from hysteria.
Having or prone to having hysterics.
Informal. Extremely funny: told a hysterical story.

apparently not just my local vernacular either, seeing as it has made it to dictionary.com

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:43 (twenty-one years ago)

well, dictionary.com is Webster's, and though I don't know why, I've heard people slag on Webster's around here. It's not a "real" dictionary. Or something. I don't understand, either.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:49 (twenty-one years ago)

ok well it may not be a 'real' dictionary, and in that case possibly neither is 'megalex' which is the one on my work pc, but it also has funny as a colloquial definition of hysterical. *shrug*

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Hysterical implies different things than hilarious. I don't think it's tetchy (?) to ask people to use words as they are defined. My hysteria about this might be hilarious to you and others.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Chambers has a colloquial 'extremely funny' definition. And it would be odd if it didn't, as it must get used in that sense more than any senses related to mental illness or trauma.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:52 (twenty-one years ago)

ok sure, it annoys me when people use words with a completely incorrect meaning, so i understand that. but it seems to me that "funny" is a fairly widely accepted colloquial definition of hysterical.... personally i think that definitions aren't stagnant, it should be ok for words to adopt meanings that are commonly accepted.

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:54 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, fine. i guess hysterical can be a substitute -but...hilarious is a better word for what one wishes to describe. Same amount of syllables, same first letter, better choice of word!
And, if you want to delve into it - hysteria has much worse connotations than hilarity.
So I prefer the the latter.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:59 (twenty-one years ago)

haha ok aimurchie different strokes anyways! so glad to have your reluctant approval though ;)

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:00 (twenty-one years ago)

but it seems to me that "funny" is a fairly widely accepted colloquial definition of hysterical

Well, I'm half with aimurchie on this. "Hysterical" is acceptable as hyperbole for how funny something is, but it better be really damn funny. You have to keep in mind the actual meaning of the word for the colloquialism to carry any weight. If "hysterical" comes to mean just plain "funny," that's a shame.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:05 (twenty-one years ago)

ok i really think this is all getting a bit pedantic now. i think the majority of people where i live would agree that the colloquial meaning is "extremely funny". maybe it's different in other locations.

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:06 (twenty-one years ago)

No, you're right.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

i like you, I like this thread, and i prefer hilarious. Forevah! Hysterically funny? Yes. Hysterical? No. But i am stubborn.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:13 (twenty-one years ago)

You are a rock of integrity.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:16 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a word for people like you. "Prescriptivists".

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:20 (twenty-one years ago)

"Hysterical" is obviously the better word, because it comes from the same root as "uterus".

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Thank you. Hilarity ensues. I'm saving the hysteria for Thanksgiving.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:22 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.ccsi.com/~romy/IMAGES/hysteria.GIF

(That was inevitable.)

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't feel like busting out the OED at this hour, but doesn't "hysteria" as in "neurotic" come from the late 19th C., when it was used a way of shrugging off feminist complaints by creating a psychiatric "disease"? It's a fairly offensive word in it's "correct" context, and I'd advise against using it.

But if you want to imply that gut-busting humor comes from the womb, that doesn't seem as bad.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

The less i sleep the more hilarious it is that tomorrow I pick up my mother, who will be beside herself and slightly hysterical because of my lateness. I might laugh hysterically about my fate, but I am content with this hilarious conversation. I'm not crazy - but i do think it's hysterically funny that I am writing this. perhaps the true hilarity will be revealed when i wake up on Friday.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Casuitry! jeez, you're kind of negating your first statement! Hysteria was a female affliction, related to the womb."female troubles". Hysteria led to hysterectomies. Hilarity led to more fun, That's why i don't think hysterical should equal funny.
But I'm also just really stubborn. And tired.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:41 (twenty-one years ago)

We would have many more problems if we started excising words because of inconsistent or inappropriate roots.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:43 (twenty-one years ago)

In word news: The world's favourite English words...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4039185.stm

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)

And god knows what would happen if we take them literally.

bush ( P ) Pronunciation Key (bsh)
n.
A low shrub with many branches.
A thick growth of shrubs; a thicket.

Land covered with dense vegetation or undergrowth.
Land remote from settlement: the Australian bush.

A shaggy mass, as of hair.
Vulgar Slang. A growth of pubic hair.
A fox's tail.

Archaic. A clump of ivy hung outside a tavern to indicate the availability of wine inside.
Obsolete. A tavern.

v. bushed, bush·ing, bushes
v. intr.
To grow or branch out like a bush.
To extend in a bushy growth.

v. tr.
To decorate, protect, or support with bushes.

adj.
Slang. Bush-league; second-rate: “Reviewers here have tended to see in him a kind of bush D.H. Lawrence” (Saturday Review).

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:51 (twenty-one years ago)

He said: "All of us have a mother and have a reasonable idea of who that person is...

That is very British.
Am i just tired or was "oi!" on that list?

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, Oi! If I could find the whole list I would start a thread - Zing! was one of them.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:59 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, sonny boy. This is my thread. Don't you go makin' me choose between Oi! and Zing! when Oi! is the obvious choice.
Oi! loves hilarious and Zing! loves hysterical.
I may be tired, but i sleep with one eye open when it comes to this.

― aimurchie, Thursday, 25 November 2004 08:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Found the whole list: Zing! World's Favourite English Words

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Thursday, 25 November 2004 08:10 (twenty-one years ago)

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