angst

Meaning

Noun

1. Emotional turmoil; painful sadness.
2. A feeling of acute but vague anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression, especially philosophical anxiety.

Verb

To suffer angst; to fret.

Synonyms

anxiety

worry

uneasiness

disquiet

alarm

dismay

distress

hump

oppression

mental anguish

angst bunny

mean reds

angstrom

anguish

bad mood

blues

Pronounced as (IPA)

/æŋ(k)st/

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.