shell shockn.
/ˈʃɛl ʃɒk/, U.S. /ˈʃɛl ˌʃɑk/ 1.
a. A disorder identified in soldiers in the First World War (1914–18), attributed to exposure to shell-fire and characterized by severe anxiety and other psychological disturbances, often accompanied by somatic symptoms such as rapid heartbeat and nervous tics. Now chiefly historical.Shell shock would now be classified as a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > shell-shock, etc.
shell shock1915
combat fatigue1943
bomb-happiness1944
survivor syndrome1968
1915 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 30 Jan. 192/2 Only one case of shell shock has come under my observation. A Belgian officer was the victim. A shell burst near him without inflicting any physical injury. He presented practically complete loss of sensation in the lower extremities and much loss of sensation.
1915 C. S. Myers in Lancet 13 Feb. 316/2 (title) A contribution to the study of shell shock.
1916 Times 1 June 5/5 A young soldier..who had been rendered dumb from shell shock in France recovered his speech when listening to the humorous song ‘Any old iron’.
1918 E. A. Mackintosh War, the Liberator 148 The Corporal..collapsed suddenly with twitching hands and staring, frightened eyes, proclaiming the shell-shock he had held off while the work was to be done.
1925 Amer. Mercury July 262/1 So-called ‘shell shock’ is known by neuropsychiatrists to be nothing more nor less than the historic disease, hysteria.
1943 G. Greene Ministry of Fear ii. i. 111 There's not a finer shell-shock clinic in the country.
1991 New Scientist 9 Mar. 43/2 Treatment for shell shock has to be quick and a matter of common sense. Soldiers are given the chance to sleep, rest and have plenty of warm drinks, but battlefield psychiatrists are wary of prescribing drugs.
2008 New Yorker 19 May 32/3 Eventually, as part of a standard medical screening, Boyd was diagnosed as having chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.., which in earlier conflicts was known as battle fatigue or shell shock but is not exclusively war-related.
b. In extended and hyperbolical use: severe shock or surprise.
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1918 Washington Post 30 Sept. 8/3 Your maid comes in and gives you a touch of ‘shellshock’ by announcing that she's going to be a conductorette or a munitions worker.
1937 J. P. Marquand Late George Apley xxv. 276 I cannot get at him, for he appears to suffer from a species of shell-shock when subjects of which he should be proud are mentioned.
1984 L. Shiner in B. Sterling Mirrorshades (1986) 127 He read the look in the dive master's eyes: another case of shell shock.
1991 Sports Illustr. 9 Dec. 104/1 I went into shell shock in the first half.
2010 R. A. Posner Crisis Capitalist Democracy 5 Academic economists, emerging from the shell shock that I described in my first book, have begun grappling with the profound economic issues presented by the crisis.
2. slang. Cocoa. Now rare.
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the world > food and drink > drink > cocoa > [noun]
chocolate1604
cacao1625
chocolate cup1687
milk chocolate1723
cocoa tea1747
cocoa1786
hot chocolate1789
hot cocoa1824
shell cocoa1902
drinking chocolate1920
shell shock1935
kye1943
1935 M. Harrison Spring in Tartarus iii. 300 He understood well enough, why the cocoa which Jim sold at a penny the cup, was called ‘shell-shock’.
1936 Chambers's Jrnl. Dec. 885/1 I was just having a cup of shell-shock at the Jimmy 'Orner, when I bangs into Rodney.
1959 Listener 5 Mar. 406/1 A mug of ‘shell-shock’—that is what we call cocoa.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1915