Obsession

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əbˈsɛʃən/

Definitions

1. An intense and often unhealthy preoccupation with a particular thought, feeling, or object that dominates one's mind
2. An enduring and often unhealthy fixation on a specific thought, person, or thing that significantly impairs one’s day-to-day functioning
3. A persistent and disruptive focus on a particular idea, individual, or object that overrides rational thought and affects emotional well-being

Etymology: The Latin verb "obsidere" meant "to besiege," built from "ob" ("against, in the way of") and "sedere" ("to sit"). The idea was literal: an army sat down in front of a town and blockaded it. A besieging was an "obsessio," and that military image is still present in the modern word, which describes a mind held under siege by a single idea. The journey from a city wall to the mind happened through the verb "obsess," which English borrowed from the same Latin root and used first in the sense of surrounding or beleaguering a place. Its figurative extension, a person or thought taken over by something, grew out of that sense of being hemmed in and unable to escape. The noun "obsession" follows the same path, with the suffix "-ion" marking a state or action.

Synonyms: preoccupation, fixation, mania, compulsion, infatuation

Antonyms: indifference, disinterest