Anxiousness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mental state characterized by pervasive worry and unease about future circumstances
2. A feeling of unease and tension about potential future events
3. The experience of restless concern and apprehension regarding what may come

Etymology: "Anxiousness" is "anxious" with the suffix "-ness" added, so its history is mostly the history of its two parts. The root of "anxious" is Latin "angere," meaning "to choke" or "to press tightly," a sense that survives in the Latin source of "anxius," which the English adjective was built from. The feeling of being pressed or squeezed gives the word its modern emotional sense of distress. The suffix "-ness" is one of English's oldest and most productive endings. It descends from an Old English noun ending, "-nes" or "-ness," that turned adjectives into nouns naming a quality or state, as in "goodness" or "darkness." Attaching it to "anxious" yields a noun for the condition of being anxious, and the same pattern produced countless other abstract nouns over the centuries.

Synonyms: anxiety, nervousness, unease, worry, apprehension

Antonyms: calmness, composure, serenity, tranquility, peace