Connect/join the dots

The complete expression is a conniption fit sometimes with the intensifier hairy meaning extreme or scary, as in a hairy conniption. It means an agitated or extreme paroxysm or reaction to something. The origin is obscure. Some sources maintain it is an arbitrary nonsense word while others put forward a Yiddish origin. Whatever the origin, conniption and conniption fit have been traced back as far as 1830. Hairy conniption is a mid-20th century variation.