sb. and a. Forms: α. 4–6 frenesie, -ye, 4 frenesi, frensye, fransie, -ye, (4–5 frenise, 5 frenysye, franesie, 6 frenyse, franzie), 4–7 frenesy, 5–6 fransey, 6–7 frensie, -zie, (7 frensey), 5–9 frensy, (6 frenesi, fransy, -zy, 6–7 frenc(e)y), 7– frenzy. β. 6–7 phrenesie, -ye, phrensie, -zie, 6–9 phrensy, (9 -esy), 7– phrenzy. See also PHRENESIS. [ME. frenesie, a. OF. frenesie (F. frénésie) = Pr. frenezia, It. frenesia, f. late L. phrenēsis (whence directly Pr. frenezi, Sp. frenesí, Pg. frenesi), a pseudo-Gr. formation (on the analogy of pairs of related words in -ησις -ητικός) after phrenēticus, corruption of Gr. φρενιτικός: see FRANTIC.
The spelling with ph- is now rare; some writers show a tendency to prefer it when the reference is to prophetic ecstasy or demoniacal possession.]
A. sb.
1. Mental derangement; delirium, or temporary insanity; in later use chiefly the uncontrollable rage or excitement of a paroxysm of mania. Now somewhat rare in lit. sense.
α. c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr. (1866), 17. A fantasie caused of trubblyng of þe brayne, as a mane þat es in a frensye hym thynkes þat he herys or sese þat na noþer man duse, and all es bot vanyte and fantasie of þe heued.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. v. (1495), 225. Frensy is an hote postume in certayn skynnes and felles of the brayne, and therto folowyth wakynge and rauyng.
c. 1440. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), II. xxii. Thou shall fall in to syckenes or in to fantasyes or in to frenesyes.
1549. Compl. Scot., xv. 124. I may compair them til ane man in ane frenyse, quhilk bytis his auen membris vitht his tetht.
1674. Milton, P. L. (ed. 2), xi. 485.
| Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, | |
| And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy. |
1713. Swift, Frenzy of J. Denny, Wks. 1755, III. I. 138. Mr. Dennis, an officer of the custom-house, who was taken ill of a violent frenzy last April, and had continued in those melancholy circumstances with few or no intervals.
1794. Coleridge, On a Friend who died of a Fever. 17.
| Till Frenzy, fierce-eyed child of moping pain, | |
| Darts her hot lightning flash athwart the brain. |
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, V. 219. If the stories which were current about Cotys may be believed, he must have been subject to temporary fits of frenzy.
β. 1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 133 b. Rinning thyme … is … good … for the phrenesye.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. iii. § 1. Many there are who neuer thinke on God, but when they are in extremitie of feare: and then because, what to thinke, or what do doe they are vncertaine, perplexitie not suffering them to be idle, they thinke and doe as it were in a phrensie, they know not what.
a. 1617. Bayne, On Eph. i. 8. (1647), 102. Should we be through phrenzie out of our right mindes a moneth or two, Oh how graciously would we thinke God dealt with us, to restore us againe to our right senses, as we use to speake?
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., i. 8. He that hath eyes to see let him see: but should the light, by being brought too close to his eyes produce phrensy, he may burn himself, by endeavouring to extinguish the torch of truth.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. iv. 111. The women of Argos were struck with phrenzy.
2. fig. Agitation or disorder of the mind likened to madness; a state of delirious fury, rage, enthusiasm, or the like; also, wild folly, distraction, craziness.
α. [c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. T., 501. I hold him in a maner frenesye.]
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3827. He felle in a fransye for fersenesse of herte.
c. 1422. Hoccleve, Jereslaus’ Wife, 715.
| The Shipman had also the franesie, | |
| Þat with this Emperice hadde ment | |
| ffulfillid his foul lust of aduoutrie, | |
| Which was in him ful hoot and ful feruent. |
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, 605/2. Happy were Tindall, if he were as well recouered of his fransies, as I truste in God Colins is at this day of his.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 12. The Poets eye in a fine frenzy rolling.
1698. J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 266. That the Immortal Gods should be appeased or pleased with such Wickedness, is the highest Frenzy to believe.
1791. Paine, Rights of Man (ed. 4), 8. When the tongue or the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man, and not the subject, that becomes exhausted.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, II. 231. The sight inspired almost a frenzy of delight.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 234. Some hot-headed Roman Catholic, driven to frenzy by the lies of Oates and by the insults of the multitude, and not nicely distinguishing between the perjured accuser and the innocent magistrate, had taken a revenge of which the history of persecuted sects furnishes but too many examples.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 112. It was most likely an act done in the mere frenzy of despair, without any rational reckoning of what was likely to come of it.
β. c. 1665. Mrs. Hutchinson, Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1846), 379, note. His moderation in a time of phrenzy was surely a sufficient argument.
1795. Windham, Speeches Parl., 5 Jan. (1812), I. 264. He seems to adhere to it with all the phrenzy and fondness which men usually shew to their most extravagant opinions.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, I. xii.
| I could have laugh’d—but lack’d the time— | |
| To see, in phrenesy sublime, | |
| How the fierce zealots fought and bled, | |
| For king or state, as humour led. |
1855. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Hist., ix. 287. The king, probably to save his life from the phrensy of faction, banished him from the kingdom.
b. A crazy notion or wild idea; also, a craze or mania (for something).
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 126. A new phrensie being come into his head of getting the Princesse Eromilia.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 13. Whom the Frensy of Travelling never carry’d into Foreign Lands.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., III. lx. 291. Accustomed to indulge every chimera in politics, every frenzy in religion, the soldiers knew little of the subordination of citizens, and had only learned, from apparent necessity, some maxims of military obedience.
3. attrib. and Comb., as frenzy-pointed, -rolling adjs.; frenzy-fever, a fever attended with delirium, ? brain-fever.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 903. Had halfe his people on this Coast sicke of shaking, burning, *frenzie-fevers.
1806. Antid. Mis. Hum. Life (1816), 115. My eldest daughter, then sixteen years of age, was seized with the scarlet fever, from which she was scarcely recovered, when she was attacked by a still more formidable one, a frenzy fever.
1835. Talfourd, Ion, II. iii.
| Are thine ears | |
| So charm’d by strains of slavish minstrelsy | |
| That the dull groan and *frenzy-pointed shriek | |
| Pass them unheard to Heaven? |
1777. Warton, Ode, viii. 54.
| Nor call in vain inspiring Ecstasy | |
| To bid her visions meet the *frenzy-rolling eye. |
Hence † Frenziful a., affected with frenzy.
1726. De Foe, Hist. Devil, I. iv. (1840), 42. All these pretences of frenziful and fanciful people, who tell us they have seen the Devil, I shall examine, and perhaps expose by themselves.
B. adj. [? attrib. use of the sb.]
† 1. Mad, insane, crazy. Obs.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 205/1. He that bindeth a phrensie man, and waketh him that is sicke of the lethargie, doth trouble them both, and yet he loueth them both.
1616. S. Ward, Balme from Gilead (1617), 30. All these sleepers haue but a frensie mans sleepe; this Tranquilitie will be sure to end in a Tempest.
1647. Trapp, Comm. Matt. v. 44. Laurence Saunders the Martyr, being sent to prison by Stephen Gardner, Bishop of Winchester (who bad, Carry away this phrensie-fool, &c.) praised God for a place of rest and quiet, where to pray for the Bishops conversion.
2. dial. Angry; of a violent temper, passionate.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, x. I daresay ye warna franzy, for ye look as if ye’d ne’er been angered i’ your life.
1876. S. Warw. Gloss., Franzy, passionate.
1884. Holland, Chester Gloss., Franzy, irritable.
Hence † Frenzily adv., † Frenziness.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 310. Vehement anger is often accompanied with frensinesse, and with the falling sicknesse.
a. 1688. Bunyan, Wks. (1692), I. 427/1. How frenzily he imagins?
