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angst - Word of the Day - Tue Apr 1, 2025

Myr

Entry posted by Myr in Word of the Day

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angst - (n) - a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, typically an unfocused one about the human condition or the state of the world in general.

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As April Fool's Day approached, a wave of angst washed over me, knowing that my prank-loving friends would spare no effort to trick me with their mischievous schemes.

 

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Bill W

Bill W 62,085
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Teenagers are often filled with angst or act angsty.  Their anxiety is over what's happening to their bodies, what's happening in school, the insecurity over keeping or even having a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and what their friends and others might be up to.  

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Bill W

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The English word "angst," meaning a feeling of anxiety, dread, or anguish, originates from the German word "Angst," which itself stems from the Proto-Germanic root "*angustu-",which means "narrow, constricted, and is ultimately derived from the Pro-Indo-European root "*angh-", meaning "tight, painfully constricted, painful".  

The word "angst," meaning a deep feeling of anxiety or dread, was first recorded in English in 1872 as a borrowing from German, and its use became more common through translations of works by Søren Kierkegaard and Sigmund Freud. 

Examples of angst in a sentence:
He was accustomed to a sort of panic, a feeling of angst, coming over him suddenly. 
"What makes these songs so potent is the unmistakable angst festering beneath each one." 
"It is a sign of the times, of our tumultuous, dizzying culture of metaphysical angst." 
Only darts seems to prompt this existential angst.
Anything using a city name would cause massive angst.
Their tastes are planted in teenage angst.
Why so much angst about who can marry whom?
They rescued me from a tedious adolescent predisposition to existential angst.

The earliest known use of the adjective "angsty" in English is from 1956, as evidenced by the Oxford English Dictionary.  Angsty means feeling, showing, expressing anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity, often in a self-conscious manner, and is often associated with the emotional turmoil of adolescence. 

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Paladin

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20 minutes ago, Bill W said:

Examples of angst in a sentence:
He was accustomed to a sort of panic, a feeling of angst, coming over him suddenly. 
"What makes these songs so potent is the unmistakable angst festering beneath each one." 
"It is a sign of the times, of our tumultuous, dizzying culture of metaphysical angst." 
Only darts seems to prompt this existential angst.
Anything using a city name would cause massive angst.
Their tastes are planted in teenage angst.
Why so much angst about who can marry whom?
They rescued me from a tedious adolescent predisposition to existential angst.

When a word that is not commonly used in speech or writing (and then not necessarily correctly) turns up twice in the example sentences it could be a hint that @Myr could include existential as a future word of the day.

Edited by Paladin
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drpaladin

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I turned up an Interesting result by doing a content search on GA for angst. I got back 73 pages of results and, as far as I looked, they all seem to be exclusively in the Word of the Day. Oddly, the ones I looked at didn't have angst in them.

I conclude this means the Word of the Day must literally be angst.

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Paladin

Paladin 19,256
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8 hours ago, drpaladin said:

I turned up an Interesting result by doing a content search on GA for angst. I got back 73 pages of results and, as far as I looked, they all seem to be exclusively in the Word of the Day. Oddly, the ones I looked at didn't have angst in them.

I conclude this means the Word of the Day must literally be angst.

Very interesting @drpaladin. My search on the Free Dictionary (a resource for scrabble players) turned up 20 words containing angst (including angst itself). Most were around the words gangster and wangster :lol:

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drpaladin

drpaladin 110,170
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4 minutes ago, Paladin said:

Very interesting @drpaladin. My search on the Free Dictionary (a resource for scrabble players) turned up 20 words containing angst (including angst itself). Most were around the words gangster and wangster :lol:

Judge I. C. Parker would be disappointed there was no hangster. 

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Bill W

Bill W 62,085
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49 minutes ago, Paladin said:

Very interesting @drpaladin. My search on the Free Dictionary (a resource for scrabble players) turned up 20 words containing angst (including angst itself). Most were around the words gangster and wangster :lol:

Just so you know, wangster can also be spelled wankster, not to be confused with wanker.  

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