nervous
pronunciation
How to pronounce nervous in British English:
UK [ˈnɜːvəs]
How to pronounce nervous in American English:
US [ˈnɜːrvəs]
-
- Adjective:
- easily agitated
- causing or fraught with or showing anxiety
- of or relating to the nervous system
- excited in anticipation
- unpredictably excitable (especially of horses)
Word Origin
- nervous (adj.)
- c. 1400, "affecting the sinews," from Latin nervosus "sinewy, vigorous," from nervus "sinew, nerve" (see nerve). Meaning "of or belonging to the nerves" in the modern sense is from 1660s. Meaning "suffering disorder of the nervous system" is from 1734; illogical sense "restless, agitated, lacking nerve" is 1740. Widespread popular use as a euphemism for mental forced the medical community to coin neurological to replace it in the older sense. Nervous wreck first attested 1862. Related: Nervously; nervousness.
Example
- 1. This makes india very nervous obviously .
- 2. It could also help nervous men calculate when to avoid the ultimate commitment .
- 3. Occasionally sensitive but not nervous .
- 4. She has more important things to think about than the nervous , always-crying old man .
- 5. But they are also nervous .