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Hypochondria vs Valetudinarian - What's the difference?

hypochondria | valetudinarian |

As nouns the difference between hypochondria and valetudinarian

is that hypochondria is a psychological disorder characterized by excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness while valetudinarian is a person in poor health or sickly, especially one who is constantly obsessed with their state of health.

As an adjective valetudinarian is

sickly, infirm, of ailing health.

hypochondria

English

Noun

(wikipedia hypochondria) (-)
  • (medicine) A psychological disorder characterized by excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness.
  • (anatomy) English plurals

    • Usage notes

    * The technical use of hypochondria'' is as a synonym for ''hypochondriasis'', while the colloquial use approximates somatization disorder (a different somatoform disorder). In cases where ambiguity is undesirable and the context may not be sufficient to identify the intended sense, it may be preferable to avoid the term ''hypochondria , using one of these terms instead.

    Related terms

    * hypochondriac * hypochondriacal * hypochondriasis * hypochondrium

    External links

    * * * ----

    valetudinarian

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • sickly, infirm, of ailing health
    • The valetudinarian habit of discussing his health had grown on Rose... -- Florence Anne Sellar MacCunn, Sir Walter Scott's Friends, 1910, p. 234
  • * Macaulay
    • The virtue which the world wants is a healthful virtue, not a valetudinarian virtue.
  • being overly worried about one's health

    • Synonyms

    * hypochondriac

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person in poor health or sickly, especially one who is constantly obsessed with their state of health
    • The most uninformed mind, with a healthy body, is happier than the wisest valetudinarian .'' -- Thomas Jefferson, ''The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1904), p. 168.
    She affected to be spunky about her ailments and afflictions, but she was in fact an utterly self-centered valetudinarian'' (Louis Auchincloss) ''The American Heritage Dictionary
    The cuisine, of course, would not be such as would raise water bubbles in the mouth of a valetudinarian ; the carniverous propensity will mostly be gratified by steak which, when cut, will resemble the Mudhook Yacht Club burgee of ''rouge et noir''; and savory soups and luscious salmon will be luxuries only obtainable in "cannister" form.'' -- Dixon Kemp, ''A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing (4th Ed.), 1884.

    Synonyms

    * hypochondriac

    References

    *