euphoria
noun
Rita L. Atkinson et al.Clifton Brown
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Euphoria Has Greek Roots
Health and happiness are often linked, sometimes even in etymologies. Today euphoria generally refers to happiness, but it comes from euphoros, a Greek word that means “healthy.” Given that root, it’s unsurprising that in its original English uses euphoria was a medical term. A medical dictionary published in 1881 (The New Sydenham Society’s Lexicon of Medicine and the Allied Sciences), for example, defines euphoria as “well-being, or the perfect ease and comfort of healthy persons, especially when the sensation occurs in a sick person,” and the second edition of our own unabridged dictionary published in 1934 labels euphoria as a psychological term meaning “a sense of well-being and buoyancy.” The idea of buoyancy also connects to the word’s Greek roots: euphoros comes from a combination of the prefix eu-, meaning “well” or “easily,” and the verb pherein, meaning “to bear.” Modern physicians still use the term, but euphoria has since entered everyday usage as a word for happy feelings so intense one feels borne aloft—that is, as if one is floating on air.
Synonyms
Examples of euphoria in a Sentence
Colette Davidson, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Nov. 2024
Their euphoria over the pending sale is short-lived, though, after an anonymous caller demands millions to stay quiet about a discrepancy in the software’s accuracy, which shows greater likelihood that the software will misidentify people of color.
—Katie Campione, Deadline, 22 Oct. 2024
This 50/50 balanced hybrid marijuana strain gives access to euphoria’s top floor.
—Tribune Content Agency, The Mercury News, 2 Oct. 2024
Unfortunately, their mother/daughter euphoria is short-lived.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 2 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near euphoria
Cite this Entry
“Euphoria.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/euphoria. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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Medical Definition
euphoria
noun
George Bartzokis et al., NeuropsychopharmacologyKai Jacobsen and Aaron Devor, Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies
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