angst

See also Angst

English

WOTD – 21 June 2012    

Etymology

From the German word Angst or the Danish word angst; attested since the 19th century in English translations of the works of Freud and Søren Kierkegaard. (George Eliot used the phrase complete with definite article: "die Angst".) Initially capitalized (as in German), the term first began to be written with a lowercase "a" around 1940–44. The German and Danish terms both derive from Middle High German angest, from Old High German angust, from Proto-Indo-European *angh-; Dutch angst is cognate.

Pronunciation

• (Canada, UK, US) IPA: /æŋ(k)st/, X-SAMPA: /{Nkst/

• Audio (CA synth)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋkst

Noun

angst (uncountable)

1. A feeling of acute but vague anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression, especially philosophical anxiety.
2. More commonly, painful sadness or emotional turmoil, as teen angst.

Derived terms

• angst bunny, angstbunny
• angsty
• teen angst

Translations

feeling of acute anxiety or apprehension

• Finnish: ahdistus (fi), angsti (fi), elämäntuska (fi)
• French: angoisse existentielle (fr) f
• Italian: paturnie (it) f pl
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: angst (nb) m

  Nynorsk: angst (nn) m, angest (nn) m

• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: тревога (ru) (trevóga) f, беспокойство (ru) (bespokójstvo) n
• Spanish: anxiedad extrema (es) f, pánico (es) m, nevioscismo (es) m

painful sadness or emotional turmoil

• Finnish: ahdistus (fi), angsti (fi), elämäntuska (fi)

• Russian: тоска (ru) (toská) f, грусть (ru) (grustʹ) f

Verb

angst (third-person singular simple present angsts, present participle angsting, simple past and past participle angsted)

1. (informal) To suffer angst; to fret.
   • 2001, Joseph P Natoli, Postmodern Journeys: Film and Culture, 1996-1998

     In the second scene, the camera switches to the father listening, angsting, dying inside, but saying nothing.

   • 2006, Liz Ireland, Three Bedrooms in Chelsea

     She'd never angsted so much about her head as she had in the past twenty-four hours. Why the hell hadn't she just left it alone?

References

• angst on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “angst” in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.
• "angst" in WordNet 3.0, Princeton University, 2006.

Anagrams

• 'ganst
• gnats
• stang
• tangs

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Danish

Adjective

angst

1. afraid, anxious, alarmed

Noun

angst c (singular definite angsten, not used in plural form)

1. fear, alarm, apprehension, dread
2. anxiety
3. angst

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Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch *angust, from Proto-Germanic *angustiz.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑŋst

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

angst m (plural angsten, diminutive angstje)

1. fear, angst, anxiety

Synonyms

• schrik
• vrees

Derived terms

• faalangst

Related terms

• angsthaas
• angstig
• angstpsychose

Anagrams

• stang

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German (compare German Angst).

Noun

angst m (definite singular angsten; uncountable)

1. (singular only) angst

Derived terms

• angstbiter
• angstskrik
• dødsangst
• kastrasjonsa
• plassangst
• prestasjonsangst
• seksualangst

References

• Bokmålsordboka på nett