stress

Pronunciation

• IPA: /stres/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stresse (“hardship, coercion”),^[2][3] partly a shortening of destresse, the ancestor of distress,^[2][3][4] and partly borrowed from Old French estrece (“narrowness, oppression”),^[2][3][5] from Vulgar Latin *strictia,^[2][3] from Latin strictus (“tight, compressed”), past participle of stringere (“to draw tight”).^[2][3] The verb is partly from Old French estrecier “to constrain”, from Vulgar Latin *strictiāre.^[3][5][4] It is related to strict, strait and strain.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hardship, adversity, and force used to compel someone: 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne,^[6][3] senses now mostly archaic or obsolete.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Great strain or anguish is from probably about 1380, in Pearl.^[3] Physical strain on an object is from the mid-15th century.^[2][5] The figurative “weight, importance, emphasis” is from the 1650s, perhaps from the idea of pressure put on something by relying on it,^[2] and the stress of the voice on a syllable from 1749.^[2][3] In mechanics, force within a body that tends to deform it, the word was defined by Rankine in 1855, as distinct from strain.^[2] The psychological sense, mental or emotional strain, is a 20th-century development;^[2] the verb “to subject a person to stress” is from 1973 in Etymonline,^[2] and the figurative “to emphasise” from 1896.^[2]

Timeline

• 1303 – hardship; compulsion.^[6][3]
• c. 1380 – anguish, in Pearl.^[3]
• mid-15th century – physical strain.^[2]
• 1650s – emphasis.^[2]
• 1749 – stress on a syllable.^[2][3]
• 1855 – in mechanics, Rankine.^[2]
• 1896 – verb, to emphasise.^[2]
• 1973 – verb, to cause mental strain.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Mental or emotional strain or tension.
2. Importance or emphasis placed on something.
3. The relative force with which a syllable is spoken; accent.
4. In physics, a force acting on a body that tends to deform it.

Verb

1. To place emphasis on.
2. To pronounce a syllable with stress.
3. To subject to mental or physical pressure.
4. (informal) To become anxious: stop stressing.

Word family

• stressless
• stresslessness
• antistress
• microstress
• nonstress
• prestress
• stressful
• stress-timed

Related words

• strain
• strait
• strict
• stringent
• stringency
• distress
• constrain
• district

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press