Worrier worri·er n. Word History: Worrying may shorten ones life, but not as quickly as it once did. The ancestor of our word, Old English wyrgan, meant to strangle. Its Middle English descendant, worien, kept this sense and developed the new sense to grasp by the throat with the teeth and lacerate or to kill or injure by biting and shaking. This is the way wolves or dogs might attack sheep, for example. In the 16th century worry began to be used in the sense to harass, as by rough treatment or attack, or to assault verbally, and in the 17th century the word took on the sense to bother, distress, or persecute. It was a small step from this sense to the main modern senses to cause to feel anxious or distressed and to feel troubled or uneasy, first recorded in the 19th century.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:15:50 +0000
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