Overreactiveness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An excessive response or reaction to a stimulus that is disproportionate to the situation
2. a tendency to amplify emotional reactions beyond what is deemed appropriate
3. a marked inclination to escalate responses significantly more than necessary in various contexts

Etymology: Overreactiveness is a plain English compound: "overreactive" plus the suffix "-ness", which turns an adjective into a noun for a quality or state. The base "overreactive" is formed from the prefix "over-", meaning excessive, and "reactive", which descends from "react", built on the Latin "re-" (back, again) and "agere" (to act). So the word literally describes the state of acting back too strongly. The "-ness" suffix is one of the oldest productive endings in English, inherited from Old English, where it attached freely to adjectives to form nouns. That is why nearly any adjective can take it, and why the resulting nouns tend to be built as needed rather than recorded in dictionaries for long periods.

Synonyms: hyperreactivity

Antonyms: calmness, composure