| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| paranoia (n.), paranoiac, paranoid (adjs., nn.) |
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| Paranoia in psychiatry is “a mental disorder—a psychosis—in which the patient has systematic delusions, commonly of persecution.” Paranoiac and paranoid are the adjectives used to describe symptoms and conditions characteristic of paranoia, and functional shift has made each of them a noun as well: I think she’s [a] paranoiac [paranoid]; she is suspicious of everybody. The technical psychiatric uses continue, but all three terms, and especially the adjectives, have also generalized to mean “fearful,” especially “worried about what others may be thinking or doing that could be harmful to oneself.” Like so many other terms from medicine and psychiatry adopted by the general vocabulary, these too reflect in general use the hyperbole so frequent in Standard English. Paranoid has a higher frequency than paranoiac, often meaning in Conversational or Informal use little more than “anxious or worried.” It combines with the prepositions about, over, and (very rarely) of: She’s paranoid about [over, of] not being dressed appropriately. Best advice: use these words sparingly in all senses but the literal, and combine them only with about and over. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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