different between sorrow vs anxiety

English

Etymology

From Middle English sorow, sorwe, from Old English sorg, from Proto-West Germanic *sorgu, from Proto-Germanic *surg? (compare West Frisian soarch, Dutch zorg, German Sorge, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sorg), from Proto-Indo-European *swerg?- (“watch over, worry; be ill, suffer”) (compare Old Irish serg (“sickness”), Tocharian B sark (“sickness”), Lithuanian sirgti (“be sick”), Sanskrit ????????? (s??rk?ati, “worry”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: s?r'?, IPA^(key): /?s????/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s??o?/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?s??o?/
• Rhymes: -????

Noun

sorrow (countable and uncountable, plural sorrows)

1. (uncountable) unhappiness, woe
   • August 28, 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 47

     The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment.

2. (countable) (usually in plural) An instance or cause of unhappiness.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sorrow (third-person singular simple present sorrows, present participle sorrowing, simple past and past participle sorrowed)

1. (intransitive) To feel or express grief.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 424:

     ‘Sorrow not, sir,’ says he, ‘like those without hope.’

2. (transitive) To feel grief over; to mourn, regret.

Derived terms

• besorrow

Translations

References

• “sorrow” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "sorrow" in WordNet 3.0, Princeton University, 2006.

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.