Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A fit of violent emotion, such as anger or panic.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An attack of hysteria; a fit of rage or vexation.
  • noun An attack of hysteria; a fit of rage or vexation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal A fit of anger or panic; conniption fit.
  • noun A fit of laughing; convulsion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a display of bad temper

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Mock-Latin, perhaps influenced by snip or snap.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Since 1833, from American English. Unknown origin, perhaps related to corruption or captious.

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Examples

  • Second-place winner Nada Bader, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Crestwood Middle School, met her downfall with the word "conniption" - a fit of rage, hysteria or alarm.

    Times Leader News 2009

  • Second-place winner Nada Bader, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Crestwood Middle School, met her downfall with the word "conniption" - a fit of rage, hysteria or alarm.

    Times Leader News 2009

  • The question is who coined conniption and under what circumstances.

    OUPblog 2009

  • For now, I trudge on, work hard, and think about all the things I have to get done by Monday without having some kind of conniption fit.

    Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time barbylon 2004

  • For now, I trudge on, work hard, and think about all the things I have to get done by Monday without having some kind of conniption fit.

    Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time barbylon 2004

  • It is such a remarkably fierce-looking creature that it has received many names that are neither complimentary nor beautiful, such as conniption bug, alligator, and dragon, and numerous others equally expressive.

    The Insect Folk Margaret Warner Morley 1890

  • She knows how to spell "conniption," too, and that's what earned the Charleston Middle School seventh-grader the title at the Regional Spelling Bee.

    unknown title 2009

  • The Times today reports that up in Snohomish County they have picked 5 spots most along 99 to allow developments with 18 stories; meanwhile down here in seattle we throw a conniption just getting 6 stories near a light rail subway stop in Roosevelt.

    Extra Fizz: 36th Dems Oppose Nickerson Bike Improvements « PubliCola 2010

  • I can deny any so-called "trolls" satisfaction by refusing to submit to their conniption fits.

    Notable 2011

  • Here are five things to know before you saddle up for the premiere Wednesday, 10/9c, Bravo: 1. Extra-large cast: Yes, this season will boast 29 cheftestants, but before you have a conniption trying to remember all the names and faces, know that they all won't be around for long.

    Is Bigger Better? 5 Things to Know About Top Chef: Texas 2011

Comments

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  • ...the increasing noise of their own dissensions, or poor Jacqueline's conniptions...

    - Malcolm Lowry, October Ferry to Gabriola

    July 30, 2008

  • A conniption fit is a panic attack. I suggest that CoNNiP is a reversal of PaNiC and fit is a reversal of tiff which is a reversal of FighT.

    Reversals are rare in English, but there are others. NuTS with the meaning "crazy" is a reversal of SaTaN. This occurred at a time when crazy people were thought to be "possessed" by the devil.

    PoSH is probably a reversal of Hebrew shin-peh-aiyin SHeFa3 = luxury, abundance, opulence. P and F are the same letter in Hebrew, usually pronounced as P at the beginning of a word and as F elsewhere.

    Izzy

    December 25, 2020