insanity meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

insanity

noun

US /ɪnˈsænɪti/

Etymology A three-part word (root 'sane', prefix 'in-' meaning 'not', suffix '-ity', meaning 'the state of'). Derived from Latin precursory equivalents. Two possible candidates for construction order: * insane + -ity: īnsānus (“unhealthy; insane”) + -itās *: Latin īnsānus (“unsound in mind; mad, insane”), from in- + sānus (“sound, sane”). Modern forms of roots: in- + sane * in- + sanity: in- (“lacking; without”) + sānitās (“health; sanity”) *: Latin sānitās (“sound in mind; sane”), from sānus + -itās. Modern forms of roots: sane + -ity

The state of being insane; madness.

The defendant pleaded insanity in the hope of getting a reduced sentence.
But the bed-side of Lady Marchmont had a darker lesson than the grave, the ravings of insanity revealed the fiery world of that beating and passionate heart. Ethel could only feel too fearful, too humbled, for judgment; but she wept, even while she prayed, beside her early friend.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Chamber of Death”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 271:

Synonyms: bedlamism, brainsickness, craze, craziness, derangement, insaneness, insanity, lunacy, lune, madness, mental disorder, mental illness, unreason, unsanity
Antonyms: mental health, saneness, sanity
Derived terms: Linsanity, masturbational insanity, masturbatory insanity
Related terms: 29 terms
insane, addiction, anxiety, behavioral crisis, complex, delusion of grandeur, dementia, ecstasy, fixation, frenzy, hypochondria, hypochondriasis, kleptomania, lypemania, general paresis of the insane, maladjustment, malaise, neurasthenia, nosomania, nympholepsy, phobia, phrenitis, psychasthenia, psychopathology, pyromania, repression, senility, mad person, :Category:en:Clinical psychology
Hypernyms: condition, deviance, disorder, illness, state
Hyponyms: bipolar disorder, depression, hysteria, mania, manic depression, neurosis, psychosis, schizophrenia, dementia praecox, disorganized schizophrenia, hebephrenia, macromania, megalomania, monomania, paranoid schizophrenia
Meronyms: 33 terms
acataphasia, akathisia, amnesia, aphasia, catalepsy, catatonia, codependency, delirium, delusion, dysphasia, dysphoria, echolalia, formication, fugue state, glossolalia, hallucination, heterolalia, hypermnesia, idée fixe, monophasia, neolalia, obsession, palilalia, paresthesia, paramnesia, paranoia, paranomia, paraphasia, paresis, phrenesis, schizophasia, total recall, word salad