Broody

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈbɹuːdi/

Definitions

1. Inclined to brood or think deeply about something that troubles one, or (of a hen) ready or wanting to sit on eggs to hatch them
2. Tending to reflect deeply on troubling thoughts or displaying characteristics of a hen wishing to incubate eggs for hatching
3. Characterized by a pensive or moody state of mind, as well as by the tendency of a hen to seek a nesting place for her eggs

Etymology: "Broody" has a more literal past than its current sense suggests. It descends from the noun "brood," a clutch of young birds or a hatch of eggs, and the adjective originally described a hen that sits on her eggs to keep them warm until they hatch. Old English "brōdiġ" carried that sense, and the same image survives in German, where the cognate "brütig" still means a broody hen. The leap to a person lost in thought came later. Someone who broods, or "broods over" a matter, is turning it over obsessively, much as a hen settles over her nest. The English adjective "broody" picked up that figurative sense of sitting quietly and absorbed in one's own worries, and it is this extended meaning that most readers now know.

Synonyms: moody, pensive, thoughtful, wistful, sorrowful

Antonyms: cheerful, happy, light-hearted, jovial, carefree