angst

See also: Angst

English

WOTD – 21 June 2012

Etymology

Borrowed from German Angst or Danish angst; attested since the 19th century in English translations of the works of Søren Kierkegaard. Initially capitalized (as in German and contemporaneous Danish), the term first began to be written with a lowercase "a" around 1940–44. The German and Danish terms both derive from Middle High German angest, from Old High German angust, from Proto-Germanic *angustiz; Dutch angst is cognate. Compare Swedish ångest.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ăng(k)st, āng(k)st, IPA^(key): /æŋ(k)st/, (pre-/æ/ tensing) /eɪŋ(k)st/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Audio (Northern US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋkst

Noun

angst (uncountable)

1. Emotional turmoil; painful sadness.
   • 1979, Peter Hammill, Mirror images:

     I've begun to regret that we'd ever met / Between the dimensions. / It gets such a strain to pretend that the change / Is anything but cheap. / With your infant pique and your angst pretensions / Sometimes you act like such a creep.

   • 2007, Martyn Bone, Perspectives on Barry Hannah, page 3:

     Harry's adolescence is theatrical and gaudy, and many of its key scenes have a lurid and camp quality that is appropriate to the exaggerated mood-shifting and self-dramatizing of teen angst.

2. A feeling of acute but vague anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression, especially philosophical anxiety.
3. (chiefly fanfiction) Fiction focusing on characters experiencing strong emotions and conflicts with other characters.
   • (Can we date this quote?), Linda Green, Entering Potter's World: A Guide for Fanfiction Writers, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 21:

     General: a story with a general theme. It is neither romance or angst but may incorporate elements of all other genres.

   • 2017 October 31, Ashley J. Barner, The Case for Fanfiction: Exploring the Pleasures and Practices of a Maligned Craft, McFarland, →ISBN, page 67:

     Fans prefer fluff to other types of fic. But angst (dramatic stories where characters have a wide range of emotions, including ... angsty ones) comes in a close second.

   • 2020 October 2, Mike Goode, Romantic Capabilities: Blake, Scott, Austen, and the New Messages of Old Media, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 193:

     There are plots that take off from the discovery of another characters' letters or diaries (e.g., CarolB's “First Attachment," an angst fanfic in which Marianne Dashwood discovers Colonel Brandon's diary related to his youthful relationship with Eliza)

Derived terms

• angst bunny, angstbunny
• angster
• angstfic
• angstful
• angstless
• angst-ridden
• angsty
• eco-angst
• Mulderangst
• Scullyangst
• technoangst
• wangst

 

Translations

emotional turmoil

• Catalan: angoixa (ca) f
• Danish: angst (da) c
• Esperanto: angoro (eo)
• Finnish: ahdistus (fi), angsti (fi), elämäntuska
• French: angoisse (fr) f
• Galician: anguria f
• Portuguese: angústia (pt) f
• Romanian: angoasă (ro) f
• Russian: тоска́ (ru) f (toská), грусть (ru) f (grustʹ)
• Turkish: keder (tr)

feeling of acute anxiety or apprehension

• Czech: úzkost (cs) f
• Danish: angst (da) c
• Dutch: angst (nl)
• Esperanto: angoro (eo)
• Finnish: ahdistus (fi), angsti (fi), elämäntuska
• French: angoisse existentielle f
• Galician: anguria f
• German: Angst (de) f
• Italian: paturnie (it) f pl
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: angst (no) m

  Nynorsk: angst m, angest m

• Portuguese: angústia (pt) f, aflição (pt) f
• Russian: трево́га (ru) f (trevóga), беспоко́йство (ru) n (bespokójstvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: не̏мӣр m, неспокојство n, анксио́зно̄ст f

  Roman: nȅmīr (sh) m, nespokojstvo n, anksióznōst (sh) f

• Spanish: pánico (es) m, nerviosismo (es) m
• Swedish: ångest (sv) c, Angst (sv) (as a philosophical and psychological term)

Verb

angst (third-person singular simple present angsts, present participle angsting, simple past and past participle angsted)

1. (informal, intransitive) To suffer angst; to fret.
   • 2001, Joseph P Natoli, Postmodern Journeys: Film and Culture, 1996-1998:

     In the second scene, the camera switches to the father listening, angsting, dying inside, but saying nothing.

   • 2006, Liz Ireland, Three Bedrooms in Chelsea:

     She'd never angsted so much about her head as she had in the past twenty-four hours. Why the hell hadn't she just left it alone?

References

• angst on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “angst”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• "angst" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

Anagrams

• 'ganst, Gnats, Stang, Tangs, Tsang, gnast, gnat's, gnats, stang, tangs

Danish

Etymology

From Middle High German angest, from Old High German angust, from Proto-Germanic *angustiz.

Adjective

angst

1. afraid, anxious, alarmed

Noun

angst c (singular definite angsten, not used in plural form)

1. fear, anxiety, alarm, apprehension, dread
2. angst

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch anxt, from Old Dutch *angust, from Proto-Germanic *angustiz, an abstract noun derived from the adjective *anguz. Similar abstract noun derivations from an adjective are dienst and ernst. Cognates include Middle Low German angest, Old High German angust, Middle High German angest, German Angst, Old Frisian ongosta, West Frisian eangst. See also eng.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑŋst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: angst
• Rhymes: -ɑŋst

Noun

angst m (plural angsten, diminutive angstje n)

1. fear, fright, anxiety

   Synonyms: huiver, schrik, vrees, vrucht

Derived terms

• angstaanjagend (“terrifying”)
• angstaanval (“panic attack”)
• angstbeeld (“frightening image”)
• angstcomplex (“phobic complex”)
• angstcultuur (“culture of fear”)
• angstdroom (“nightmare”)
• angstgevoel (“feeling of fear”)
• angsthaas (“coward”)
• angstig (“fearful”)
• angstklacht (“symptom of anxiety”)
• angstkreet (“cry of fear”)
• angstneurose (“anxious neurosis”)
• angstpsychose (“psychosis of fear”)
• angstschreeuw (“cry of fear”)
• angststoornis (“anxiety disorder”)
• angstzweet (“cold sweat”)
• beangsten (“to make fearful”)
• bindingsangst (“fear of commitment”)
• doodsangst (“mortal terror”)
• faalangst (“performance anxiety”)
• gewetensangst (“anxiety of conscience”)
• plasangst (“paruresis”)
• rijangst (“fear of driving”)
• schoolangst (“fear of school”)
• verlatingsangst (“fear of abandonment”)
• vliegangst (“fear of flying”)
• vreemdelingenangst (“xenophobia”)

 

Related terms

• eng

Descendants

• Afrikaans: angs

Anagrams

• stang

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German (compare German Angst).

Noun

angst m (definite singular angsten, uncountable)

1. angst, anxiety

Derived terms

• angstbiter
• angstskrik
• dødsangst
• kastrasjonsa
• plassangst
• prestasjonsangst
• seksualangst

 

References

“angst” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle High German angest.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaŋkst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aŋkst
• Syllabification: angst

Noun

angst m inan

1. (philosophy) angst (philosophical anxiety)

Declension

Declension of angst

	singular	plural
nominative	angst	angsty
genitive	angstu	angstów
dative	angstowi	angstom
accusative	angst	angsty
instrumental	angstem	angstami
locative	angście	angstach
vocative	angście	angsty

Further reading

• angst in Polish dictionaries at PWN