worry

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈwʌr.i/, US /ˈwɝː.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English worien (“to strangle, choke”),^[2] an alteration of earlier werien, wirien,^[2][3] inherited from Old English wyrgan (“to strangle”),^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *wurgjan.^[4][5] It is cognate with Middle Dutch worghen (Dutch worgen, wurgen), Old High German wurgen (German würgen) “to strangle” and Old Norse virgill “rope”,^[4][2] and outside Germanic with Lithuanian veržti “to bind tightly”,^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *wergh- (“to choke”).^[2] Watkins derives it from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[4] The spelling with -or- shows the influence of r on the vowel before it, as in wolf and worm.^[2] The noun is from the verb.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To kill by squeezing the throat, to strangle: about 725 in the OED,^[6] before 800 in Barnhart.^[2] In Middle English, from about 1300, it was used of a dog or wolf killing or wounding an animal by biting and shaking its throat.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages it also meant “to choke with a mouthful of food” and “to swallow greedily”.^[7][8] The sense “to strangle” was generally obsolete after about 1600.^[4] Harassing by rough treatment is first recorded before 1553;^[2] it led to “to annoy, bother”, first found in Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671),^[2] though Etymonline finds “annoy, vex” by about 1400.^[4] “To cause mental distress” is from 1822,^[4] and the intransitive “to feel anxious” from 1860,^[4] at first thought rather informal.^[7] The noun, a troubled state of mind, is from 1804,^[4][6][2] and a cause of anxiety from 1813.^[4][6] Worrisome is from 1845^[2] and worry beads from 1964.^[6] In Scottish and northern English dialect the old sense “to choke, strangle” survived.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 725 – to strangle.^[6]
• c. 1300 – to bite and shake by the throat.^[4]
• before 1553 – to harass.^[2]
• 1671 – to annoy, bother.^[2]
• 1804 – noun, anxiety.^[4][6][2]
• 1813 – a cause of anxiety.^[4][6]
• 1822 – to cause distress.^[4]
• 1860 – to feel anxious.^[4]
• 1964 – worry beads.^[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To feel uneasy or concerned; to be troubled.
2. To make anxious or troubled.
3. To bother or annoy.
4. Of a dog, to seize with the teeth and shake or tug repeatedly.
5. To touch or handle idly and repeatedly.

Noun

1. A state of anxiety.
2. Something that causes anxiety.

Word family

• worrier
• worriedly
• worryingly
• worriless
• worried
• worriment
• worrywart
• worrisome

Related words

• wring
• wrong
• wreath

Usage notes

Worrying, the American Heritage notes, may shorten life, but not as quickly as it once did, when the verb meant “to strangle”.^[10]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin