apprehension

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English apprehensioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Late Latin apprehēnsiō (“a seizing, laying hold; understanding”),^{[4][5][3][6][7]} either directly or through Old French apreension (“comprehension, something learned”).^[5][2][8] The OED is unsure whether French played a part, since it finds appréhension only from the 15th century.^[4] The Latin noun is formed from apprehēnsus, the past participle of apprehendō (“to take hold of, grasp”),^[2][5][9] which is ad- (“to”) and prehendō (“to seize”),^[5][2] itself from prae- (“before”) and -hendō, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰend- (“to seize, take”).^[5][2] It is the noun of apprehend.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Learning, the acquiring of knowledge: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, a sense obsolete by 1648.^[4][6] Etymonline gives the first sense as "perception, comprehension", from the late 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word meant seizing with the hand as well as with the mind, and English took over the mental sense first.^[5][4] Through the 16th century it came to mean the faculty of understanding (1570), a notion or opinion (1579) and the forming of an idea (1597).^[4] The physical sense followed: the arrest of a person in the name of the law, from 1577 in the OED^[4] or the 1570s in Etymonline,^[5] and the grasping of a thing, a rare use, from 1646.^[4] The sense now most common, anxious expectation of something bad, grew from the idea of picturing to oneself what is to come: the OED's first example is from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (before 1616),^[4] and Etymonline dates it to about 1600.^[5] Johnson (1755) still put "the mere contemplation of things" first.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1398 – learning, acquiring knowledge (obsolete by 1648).^[4]
• 1570 – the faculty of understanding.^[4]
• 1577 – the arrest of a person.^[4][5]
• 1579 – a notion, view or opinion.^[4]
• 1597 – the grasping of something with the mind.^[4]
• 1600 – perception through the senses (now archaic).^[4]
• before 1616 – anticipation, chiefly of something bad; fear.^[4] Etymonline dates it to about 1600.^[5]
• 1646 – the physical seizing of something (rare).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Anxiety or fear that something bad will happen: She waited for the results with growing apprehension.^[11][3][7]
2. The arrest or capture of a person: the apprehension of the escaped prisoners.^[11][3][4]
3. The ability to understand; understanding: a man of quick apprehension.^[11][3][4]
4. The act of grasping something with the mind; perception.^[3][7][4]
5. An idea, notion or opinion.^[11][3][4]
6. (obsolete) The act of learning.^[3][4][8]

Word family

• misapprehension
• nonapprehension
• preapprehension
• reapprehension

Related words

• apprehend
• apprehensive
• comprehension
• prehensile
• reprehension

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes it from anxiety and misgiving: apprehension is an active fear, usually of some coming danger;^[7] anxiety is a longer-lasting state of worry;^[7] and misgiving adds doubt or suspicion to unease.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins