Do you think I am hilarious? Or even better, do you think I am hysterical?
Many of us, including myself, use these words interchangeably. In fact, I probably use the word hysterical more frequently than the word hilarious. As in “dude, that post was hysterical!”
But I got to wondering which was the appropriate word to use in a situation where you find one of my posts funny… or I find one of your posts funny.
So I did a little research.
Hilarious means: marked by or causing hilarity; extremely funny.
Hilarity means: cheerfulness; mirthfulness; boisterous gaiety or merriment.
If you weren’t sure, like I wasn’t, mirthfully means: joyous; gay; jolly: a mirthful laugh; providing mirth; amusing: a mirthful experience.
On the other hand…
Hysterical means: of, pertaining to, or characterized by hysteria; uncontrollably emotional; irrational from fear, emotion, or an emotional shock; causing hysteria; suffering from or subject to hysteria.
Hysteria means: a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions; behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess.
With all that in mind and after reading through some older posts… well… I guess I don’t really know which is the appropriate word.
So I thought I’d take a poll:
The Brown Road Chronicles 