anguish
pronunciation
How to pronounce anguish in British English:
UK [ˈæŋɡwɪʃ]
How to pronounce anguish in American English:
US [ˈæŋɡwɪʃ]
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- Noun:
- extreme mental distress
- extreme distress of body or mind
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- Verb:
- suffer great pains or distress
- cause emotional anguish or make miserable
Word Origin
- anguish
- anguish: [13] English acquired anguish from Old French anguisse, changing its ending to -ish in the 14th century. Its central notion of ‘distress’ or ‘suffering’ goes back ultimately (as in the case of the related anger) to a set of words meaning ‘constriction’ (for the sense development, compare the phrase in dire straits, where strait originally meant ‘narrow’).Old French anguisse came from Latin angustia ‘distress’, which was derived from the adjective angustus ‘narrow’. Like Greek ánkhein ‘squeeze, strangle’ (ultimate source of English angina [16]) and Latin angere ‘strangle’, this came originally from an Indo-European base *angg- ‘narrow’.=> anger, angina
- anguish (n.)
- c. 1200, "acute bodily or mental suffering," from Old French anguisse, angoisse "choking sensation, distress, anxiety, rage," from Latin angustia (plural angustiae) "tightness, straitness, narrowness;" figuratively "distress, difficulty," from ang(u)ere "to throttle, torment" (see anger (v.)).
- anguish (v.)
- early 14c., intransitive and reflexive; mid-14c., transitive, from Old French anguissier (Modern French angoisser), from anguisse (see anguish (n.)). Related: Anguished; anguishing.
Example
- 1. Yet her peers had no idea of her private anguish .
- 2. But lately there has been little anguish about inflation .
- 3. In his mind , if he recovered , we would never know how close he came ; if he died , he would have spared us months of anguish .
- 4. Last week , his cousin ivan nabokov described to the observer the executor 's anguish .
- 5. Hence the howls of anguish from human-rights activists who once thought mr obama was their man .