English
angst
Angst may come from German Angst ‘fear’.
- Germanc. 1650–presentAngst‘fear’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1979angst
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Germanc. 1650–presentAngst‘fear’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1979angst
Earliest quotation: 1979, Peter Hammill: “I've begun to regret that we'd ever met /…”
The story
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; related to anguish, Dutch angst, Swedish ångest.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- ‘to constrict’
anxiety, angry, anxious, anger, anguish, angrily, angina, 12 more
through Proto-Germanic *anguz ‘narrow, tight’
Today it means
noun Emotional turmoil; painful sadness; anguish.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / German Angst / angst