different between consternation vs anxiety

English

Etymology

From French consternation, from Latin constern?ti?.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?n.st??ne?.??n/
• (US) enPR: k?n?st?r.n?'sh?n, IPA^(key): /?k?n.st??ne??.??n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

consternation (countable and uncountable, plural consternations)

1. Amazement or horror that confounds the faculties, and incapacitates for reflection; terror, combined with amazement; dismay.
   • 1899, Kate Chopin, The Awakening

     "Out!" exclaimed her husband, with something like genuine consternation in his voice.

   • 2003, Terrance Dicks & Barry Letts, Deadly Reunion, chapter 17:

     Their audience had been listening in increasing consternation.

   • February 27, 2006, Chuck Klosterman in Esquire, Invention's New Mother

     It was probably worth four millennia of consternation and regret.

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin constern?ti?. Morphologically, from consterner +? -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??s.t??.na.sj??/

Noun

consternation f (plural consternations)

1. consternation

Further reading

• “consternation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Latin anxiet?s, from anxius (“anxious, solicitous, distressed, troubled”), from ang? (“to distress, trouble”), akin to Ancient Greek ???? (ánkh?, “to choke”). See anger; angst.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?(?)?za?.?.ti/
• Rhymes: -a??ti

Noun

anxiety (countable and uncountable, plural anxieties)

1. An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 268a.

     But the other, because he's been immersed in arguments, gives the appearance of harbouring considerable anxiety and suspicion that he's ignorant of those matters he presents himself to others as an expert on.

2. An uneasy or distressing desire (for something).
3. (pathology) A state of restlessness and agitation, often accompanied by a distressing sense of oppression or tightness in the stomach.

Synonyms

• care, solicitude, foreboding, uneasiness, perplexity, disquietude, disquiet, trouble, apprehension, restlessness, distress

Related terms

Derived terms

• hangxiety

Translations

Further reading

• anxiety in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• anxiety in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.