ノイローゼ

Duden lists Neurose as a German medical and psychology term, but its history goes back to English neuroses, coined in 1776 by the Scottish physician William Cullen. The root is Greek neuron, "nerve". Japanese ノイローゼ follows the German pronunciation Neurose rather than the English form neurosis, which explains the ローゼ ending. The borrowing fits Japan's German medical vocabulary from Meiji and Taisho university medicine, the same background that gave カルテ from Karte and アレルギー from Allergie. Shogakukan's Seisenban gives a 1953 example in Takami Jun's Kono kami no hedo. The meaning moved from a clinical neurosis to a wider everyday state of pressure, anxiety, and mental exhaustion. Newspaper and TV usage helped this wider sense spread after the postwar period. Modern Japanese uses ノイローゼ in compounds such as 育児ノイローゼ and 受験ノイローゼ. English neurosis is now more technical or historical in many medical contexts; everyday English would often use stress, anxiety, or nervous breakdown, depending on the case. Example: 育児ノイローゼになりそうだ. Japanese ノイローゼ can sound colloquial, so it is not always a diagnosis.