Anguished

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Undergoing profound mental or emotional pain due to overwhelming distress or suffering
2. Enduring significant emotional turmoil characterized by extreme sorrow or torment
3. Feeling intense suffering and distress that deeply troubles the mind and heart

Etymology: "Anguished" is the past participle of the verb "anguish," so its story is really the story of the noun and verb behind it. That root is Latin "angustia," meaning "narrowness" or "difficulty," built from "angustus" (narrow, difficult). The sense of physical tightness is the key: Latin "angere" meant "to press together," and distress was imagined as a squeezing of the chest or heart. The same Latin family gave English "anger," and the Germanic side of the family produced the word "angst." The English word came through Old French "angoisse," which passed into Middle English as "angwissh" and related forms. Its earliest English senses covered both bodily agony and mental torment, and the verb followed from the noun, so to be "anguished" originally meant to be pressed and tormented by pain or grief.

Synonyms: distressed, tormented, agonized, suffering, pained

Antonyms: content, pleased, happy, calm, at ease