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/

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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.

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