Etymologically
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stress

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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
  • 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