Forstraught

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Archaic term describing someone who is utterly distressed, exhausted, or overwhelmed by sorrow or anxiety
2. Old-fashioned word for being thoroughly worn down and tormented by grief, worry, or trouble
3. Describing a person who has been badly harassed and wearied by hardship, anguish, or relentless care

Etymology: "Forstraught" is a Middle English word formed from the prefix "for-" and "straught," meaning "stretched." The "for-" here is an intensifying or destructive prefix, as in "forlorn" or "forswear," so the compound suggests being stretched out to excess, pulled apart or overwrought. Its near relatives are "bestraught," which used the prefix "be-" in a similar way, and "distraught," in which the "dis-" prefix carries a sense of pulling in different directions. The shared base, "straught," is the past form of "stretch" in its older sense, so the whole family of words rests on the physical image of something drawn taut until it tears or distorts. That literal image of stretching is what gives the word its sense of extreme mental strain, a mind pulled beyond its normal shape.