solicitous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sollicitus (“restless, uneasy, anxious”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the suffix -ous.^[2][4][5][7] The OED compares Old French solicitoux.^[2] The Latin adjective is a compound of sollus (“whole, entire”), from Proto-Indo-European *sol- (“whole, well-kept”),^[3][8] and citus (“set in motion”), the past participle of cieō (“to set in motion”),^[2][8][9][7] so that it meant literally "wholly moved".^[7] The Latin word is also the source of solicit,^[9][3] and solemn shares its first element and cite and excite its second.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of actions, study and the like, marked by care or concern: 1563, in John Foxe's Actes and Monuments.^[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the anxiety of Latin sollicitus (“agitated”),^[3][9] and was applied to people from 1570, in Foxe, in the sense "troubled, deeply concerned" about something.^[2] From the early 17th century it could mean "taking the utmost care" (1610) and "eager to do something" (1628),^[2][5] while a plain sense "apprehensive, uneasy", found in Milton's "Sollicitous and blank he thus began", was lost by the mid-18th century.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defines it as "anxious; careful; concerned", and notes that it takes about before what causes the anxiety and for before something to be obtained.^[10] It came to be used of faces in 1868, in Swinburne.^[2] Collins now lists showing consideration and attention first, as in the Shorter Oxford's quotation of quick and solicitous service,^[11][5] next to Merriam-Webster's "full of concern or fears".^[6] The noun solicitude is older than the adjective, recorded probably before 1425.^[4]

Timeline

• 1563 – of actions, marked by care or concern.^[2][4][6]
• 1570 – of people, deeply concerned about something.^[2]
• 1610 – extremely careful or attentive.^[2]
• 1621 – anxious, apprehensive (obsolete by 1741), in Burton.^[2]
• 1628 – eager, with in.^[2] Etymonline dates "very desirous" to the 1640s.^[3]
• 1693 – eager, with to and an infinitive.^[2]
• 1868 – of features, suggesting anxiety.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Showing care and attention for someone: a solicitous nurse.^[11][5][6]
2. Full of concern or fear; anxious, often with about, for or of: solicitous about her son's health.^[6][5]
3. Eager or very willing: solicitous to win their approval.^[6][11][5]
4. Extremely careful: solicitous in every detail of the ceremony.^[6][2]
5. (obsolete, 1621–1741) Apprehensive, uneasy.^[2][5]

Word family

• solicitously
• solicitousness
• oversolicitous
• unsolicitous

Related words

• solicit
• solicitude
• solicitor
• solemn
• cite
• excite

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins