The vapours was a historical expression used to describe nervous complaints such as dizziness, faintness, anxiety, or emotional instability. In eighteenth-century medicine it was thought to arise from bodily imbalances or rising “vapours” affecting the nerves and mind. Literary works frequently used the term to portray delicate sensibility, particularly among fashionable society. Poets and satirists alike employed it to suggest emotional fragility, romantic languor, or exaggerated feeling, making it both a medical reference and a cultural symbol of refined but unstable sensitivity.

Vapours historically referred to nervous faintness believed to affect sensitive individuals. In literature the vapours often symbolised emotional delicacy or exaggerated distress in sentimental characters.