phrenesis

English

Etymology

From Latin phrenesis, from Ancient Greek *φρένησις (*phrénēsis), a later equivalent of φρενῖτις (phrenîtis, “inflammation of the brain”). From the Latin comes also frenzy.

Noun

phrenesis (countable and uncountable, plural phreneses)

1. (obsolete, medicine) phrenitis
2. madness, frenzy

Quotations

• "Before the Armada, the Army of Flanders had experienced its share of mutinies or 'furies'--as the ravages of licentious soldiery were called when the phrenesis of indiscipline came over them" - Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, The Spanish Armada, the Experience of War in 1588, (Oxford, 1988).

Anagrams

• inspheres, phrensies

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek φρένησις (phrénēsis), late variant of φρενῖτις (phrenîtis).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /pʰreˈneː.sis/, [pʰrɛˈneːs̠ɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /freˈne.sis/, [freˈnɛːs̬is]

Noun

phrenēsis f (genitive phrenēsis); third declension

1. madness, delirium, frenzy

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	phrenēsis	phrenēsēs
Genitive	phrenēsis	phrenēsium
Dative	phrenēsī	phrenēsibus
Accusative	phrenēsin	phrenēsēs phrenēsīs
Ablative	phrenēse	phrenēsibus
Vocative	phrenēsis	phrenēsēs

Descendants

• Medieval Latin: phrenesia
  • → Old French: frenesie, fernoisie, franaisie, frenisie, furnexie
    • Middle French: frenesie, frenaisie, frénésie
      • French: frénésie
      • → Middle English: frenesie, ffransy, ffrenesye, franesie, fransey, fransie, fransye, frenesy, frenesye, frensy, frensye
        • English: frenzy
        • Scots: franazy (obsolete)
  • → Italian: frenesia
  • → Spanish: frenesí
• → English: phrenesis

References

• “phrenesis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• phrenesis in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• phrenesis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.