Bipolars

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Referring to individuals affected by a mental health condition characterized by alternating periods of elevated mood and depression ; relating to devices or systems with two distinct electrical poles or terminals ; describing magnets or molecules possessing two opposite magnetic or electric poles
2. Pertaining to people who experience mood swings between mania and depression in a psychiatric disorder ; concerning components that have two polarities such as positive and negative terminals ; indicating physical entities with dual opposing poles in physics or chemistry
3. Related to a psychological disorder involving shifts between highs and lows in emotion ; applicable to instruments or structures with a pair of contrasting electrical charges ; denoting substances or objects featuring two ends with opposite magnetic or electrical properties

Etymology: The noun "bipolars" is simply the plural of "bipolar", so its history is that of the adjective. The core idea is ancient: the Greek "pólos" meant a pivot or axis, the point around which the heavens seemed to turn, and Latin took it as "polus" for the celestial pole. Medieval and early modern Latin then produced "polaris", meaning of or relating to such a pole, which passed into English as "polar". English formed "bipolar" by attaching the prefix "bi-", meaning two, to "polar", so the word describes something with two opposing poles. Its earliest and most literal use was in physics and electricity, where a device or substance could have two distinct poles, such as the positive and negative terminals of a battery. The psychiatric sense, referring to mood swings between mania and depression, came much later as a figurative extension of that idea of two opposed extremes.

Synonyms: manic-depressives, cyclothymics