Anxious | Vocabulary | Khan Academy

Oh boy, oh geez, wordsmiths, I'm not feeling so hot about this word. I tell you what. The word is anxious, or if you prefer, anxious. It's an adjective that means very worried. You might have seen it in its noun form, anxiety, which is the state of being very worried.

If you trace this word back to its origins, you get the Latin word "Ang," which means to choke or to squeeze. When I feel anxious, sometimes my throat gets tight and my heart hammers in my chest. And listen, wordsmiths, it's a bad time.

That "o-u-s" part is an adjective-forming suffix; it means "full of." Right? So, being anxious is being full of that choking, squeezed feeling.

So, a real fun one this time, huh? Let's all take a deep breath, think of a calming, centered place, and come up with some related words. Some similar words that sound like "ang" or "ous," that end in "ous." I'll put on some calming music, 10 seconds. Here we go!

Here are three that I came up with: We've got anguish. It shares the same root as anxious, that "Ang" word, and it means misery, torment, very deep unhappiness, as if you were being choked or squeezed.

Agony! Okay, uh, next word: anger. This is an interesting one because anger looks a lot like "ang"-are, but actually traces back to Old Viking languages, not Latin. But it comes from an even older shared root, a common ancestor of Latin and the Viking languages. So it has the same meaning: squeezed or painful.

From there, we get anger—hostility, feeling constricted and squeezed. And finally, furious—using that "ous" ending, it means full of fury, full of anger.

I promise I'm having a very normal day, wordsmiths. There's just something about this derivation that puts me on edge.

Okay, let's use anxious in a sentence or two. At first, Betina felt anxious about hiking Needle Teeth Gorge but felt reassured when she remembered that her Aunt Isabella was a trained wilderness guide. Needle Teeth Gorge does not sound like a fun or safe place to go for a hike, uh, to me. Betina's worries are understandable.

Let's try another one using the noun form of the word anxiety. Based on what you told me, it seems like potatoes are the cause of your anxiety, Dr. Gomez said. Sometimes it helps to talk to someone about your feelings, potato-related or no.

Deep breaths, wordsmiths. You can do this. You can conquer your anxiety, and you can learn anything. David out.