Anxiety Etymology: Where Does the Word Anxiety Come From?

Anxiety comes from Middle English anxiete, borrowed from French and Latin. The Latin source is anxietas, worry, from anxius, worried or troubled. Anxius in turn comes from the base of angere, which meant to choke or to cause pain.

How to say it: /æŋˈzaɪəti/ (noun)

Key points

Anxiety entered English in the 15th century.
Its Latin source anxius meant worried or disturbed.
The deeper root angere meant to choke or cause pain.
Anger, anguish and angst are distant relatives.

The quick meaning of anxiety

Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease about something that might happen. You can feel anxiety before an exam, a flight or a hard talk with someone. Doctors also use the word for a medical condition with physical signs like tension and a fast pulse. This article is about the word itself, not medical advice.

Where the word anxiety comes from

Anxiety came into English from Latin, partly through French. Merriam-Webster gives the path as Middle English anxiete, borrowed from Middle French anxiete and Latin anxietas. The Latin word meant uneasiness, worry or concern. It was built from anxius, worried or disturbed, plus an ending that matches English -ity. So anxiety is, at heart, the state of being anxius.

The older layer is the most interesting part. Anxius came from the base of the Latin verb angere, which meant to choke, cause pain, afflict or vex. Wiktionary also links it to Ancient Greek ankho, to choke.

Root	Language	Meaning
angere	Latin	to choke, cause pain, afflict
anxius	Latin	worried, disturbed, uneasy
anxietas	Latin	worry, uneasiness
anxiete	Middle French and Middle English	anxiety

How the meaning changed over time

The core idea of worry stayed steady for a very long time. What changed is the range of the word. A body sense of being squeezed or choked sits under the Latin root. Latin turned it into a word for a troubled mind. Later English added a medical sense and a sense of eager wanting.

Stage	Form	Meaning
Old root	angere	to choke, cause pain
Latin	anxius, anxietas	worried, worry
15th century English	anxiety	uneasy worry about what may happen
1548	anxious	worried, troubled
Modern English	anxiety	worry, a medical condition, or strong eager desire

Several common English words share this old idea of tightness and pain. They did not all arrive by the same road, which is why they look different today. Some came through Latin and French, while others came through Norse or German. Here is how the family fits together, based on Merriam-Webster and Wiktionary.

Word	How it reached English	Link to anxiety
anxious	Latin anxius	the direct adjective form
anguish	Old French angoisse, from Latin angustia, narrowness	from angustus, narrow, tied to angere
anger	Old Norse angr, grief or vexation	same ancient base meaning to constrict
angst	German or Danish angst, 19th century	Germanic cousin of anguish

Word families like this show up in many places. The word magic has a Persian root that also traveled through Greek and Latin before it reached English.

How anxiety is used today

In modern English anxiety is a common noun that can be counted. People speak of their anxieties about money or work. It also appears in fixed phrases such as anxiety attack and separation anxiety. In casual talk it often just means stress, while in health settings it can name a diagnosed condition. Here are a few plain example sentences.

She felt a wave of anxiety before her driving test.
His main anxieties were about rent and his new job.
The dog shows separation anxiety when we leave.
There is a lot of anxiety in the market this week.

If worry is constant and gets in the way of daily life, it is a good idea to talk to a doctor.

Common mistakes and myths about anxiety

Because anxiety is such a common word, a few mix-ups come up often. Some are about spelling, some about meaning and some about where it came from. None of them are serious, but knowing the facts makes the word easier to use well. Here are the points people most often get wrong.

Spelling: anxiety, not anxeity. The i comes before the e, just like in anxious.
Myth: anxiety comes from Greek. The direct source is Latin anxietas. Greek ankho is only a related word.
Myth: anxiety only means fear. Merriam-Webster also lists a sense of strong desire, which is why people say they are anxious to start.
Mistake: treating angst and anxiety as the same word. They are cousins with different paths into English.

Not every word about feelings comes from Latin. The greeting namaste has a Sanskrit origin built from words for bowing and you.

Questions people ask

What is the Latin root of anxiety?

The Latin root is anxietas, from anxius, meaning worried or disturbed. Anxius comes from the base of angere, to choke, cause pain or afflict.

When did the word anxiety first appear in English?

Merriam-Webster dates the first known use of anxiety to the 15th century. The adjective anxious came later, with a first known use in 1548.

Does anxiety literally mean choking?

Not quite. Anxiety meant worry even in Latin. Its deeper root angere meant to choke, so the word carries an old picture of feeling squeezed.

Are anxiety and anger related?

Yes, distantly. Merriam-Webster traces anger to Old Norse angr and links it to the same old base meaning to constrict, which also gave Latin angere.

Is angst the same word as anxiety?

No, but they are cousins. Angst came into English from German or Danish in the 19th century and shares the same ancient root idea of tightness.

What is the difference between anxiety and worry?

In everyday talk they overlap. Anxiety often means a stronger, longer feeling of unease, and doctors also use it for a medical condition.

Sources

We checked this page against these references. The examples were written by our editors.

Anxiety Etymology: How a Latin Word for Choking Became Worry