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anxiety

ang-ZY-uh-tee · noun

Ancient GreekLatinEnglish

Origin

Borrowed from Latin ānxietās, from ānxius ("anxious, solicitous, distressed, troubled"), itself from the verb angō, "to distress, trouble." Angō is akin to Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō), meaning "to choke."

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Journey

The word entered English as a direct borrowing from Latin ānxietās, carrying forward the sense of distress already built into ānxius.

Related words

It shares roots with anxious, formed from the same Latin base plus the suffix -ety, and is also connected to anger and angst, all tracing back to that same idea of choking distress.

More words

From Ancient Greek

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