apoplexy

Late Middle English from Old French apoplexie, from Late Latin apoplexia, from Ancient Greek ἀποπληξία (apoplēxía, “madness; apoplexy, paralysis”), from ἀποπλήσσω (apoplḗssō, “to cripple by a stroke”) +‎ -ία (-ía, nominal suffix). See plague.

• IPA^(key): /ˈæp.ə.plɛk.si/

• Audio (General American):

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apoplexy (countable and uncountable, plural apoplexies)

1. (medicine, dated) Unconsciousness or incapacity resulting from a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke.
   1. (medicine) Gross hemorrhage into a cavity or into the substance of an organ.
2. (informal) A state of intense and almost uncontrollable anger.
   • 1983 August 13, Jim Wilson, “Learning From AIDS”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 5, page 6:

     Ten Straight White Males die of a mysterious disease and the nation has apoplexy — Headlines — TV Reports — Sympathy. MONEY comes pouring in and there was no discussion about where to find it.

• The term is now usually limited to cerebral apoplexy, or loss of consciousness due to effusion of blood or other lesion within the substance of the brain; but it is sometimes extended to denote an effusion of blood into the substance of any organ; as, apoplexy of the lung.

• “apoplexy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “apoplexy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “apoplexy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.