anguish

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Severe pain or suffering of the mind or body.

   The parents waited in anguish for news of their missing child.

2. 2
   verb

   To suffer intense distress, or to cause someone such distress.

   She anguished over the difficult decision for weeks.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Anguish entered English in the Middle English period and derives indirectly from Latin angere, “to choke, squeeze, or strangle.” It originally meant physical pain; the connection with angere is explained by the tightness in the throat and chest that nervous tension can produce.

From Middle English angwissh, anguishe, angoise, from Anglo-Norman anguise, anguisse, from Old French angoisse, from Latin angustia (“narrowness, scarcity, difficulty, distress”), from angustus (“narrow, difficult”), from angere (“to press together, cause pain, distress”). See angst, the Germanic cognate, and anger.

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