It's the Word of the Day podcast for November 22nd.

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Today's word is paroxysm, spelled P-A-R-O-X-Y-S-M. Paroxysm. Paroxysm is a noun. It's a formal word that refers to a

sudden, strong feeling or uncontrollable expression

of emotion. In medical use, paroxysm refers to a sudden attack or increase of symptoms of a

disease that often occurs repeatedly. Here's the word used in a sentence from deadline by Bruce Herring.

Danny Ray was part of James Brown's

cape routine for 45 years, assisting him in the song Please, Please, Please. The Godfather of

soul would collapse in a paroxysm of feigned grief during the song, being led away by a

solicitous Ray who draped the singer in a cape.

Brown would take a few steps, then return to the microphone.

Sometimes they issued the cape, and Brown was merely led away.

The word paroxysm didn't just burst onto the scene recently.

Its roots go back to ancient Greek. The word ultimately erupted from the

Greek verb paroxinine, which means to stimulate. Oxanine, apparent of paroxinine, means to provoke

and comes from oxis, a Greek word for sharp. In its earliest known English uses in the 15th century, paroxysm

referred to a sudden attack or increase of symptoms of a disease, such as pain, coughing, or shaking,

that often occur again and again. This sense is still in use, but paroxysm soon took on a broader and now much more common sense,

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