different between worry vs attention

English

Etymology

From Middle English worien, werien, wirien, wirwen, wyry?en (“to choke, strangle”), from Old English wyr?an, from Proto-Germanic *wurgijan?, from Proto-Indo-European *wer??- (“bind, squeeze”). Cognate with Dutch worgen, wurgen, German würgen. Compare Latin urgere (“to press, push”), Sanskrit ????? (v?hati, “to tear out, pluck”), Lithuanian ver?žti (“to string; squeeze”), Russian (poetic) ?????????? (otverzát?, “to open”, literally “to untie”). Related to wring.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General New Zealand, General Australian) IPA^(key): /?w??i/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w??i/, /?w?i/
• (General New Zealand, General Australian, non-standard) IPA^(key): /?w??i/
• (West Country, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?w???i/
• (accents without the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• Rhymes: -?ri

Homophone: wurry

Verb

worry (third-person singular simple present worries, present participle worrying, simple past and past participle worried)

1. (intransitive) To be troubled; to give way to mental anxiety or doubt.

2. (transitive) Disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress.

3. (transitive) To harass; to irritate or distress.

4. (transitive) To seize or shake by the throat, especially of a dog or wolf.
5. (transitive) To touch repeatedly, to fiddle with.
   • 1997, David Sedaris, "A Plague of Tics", Naked, page 15:

     So what if I wanted to touch my nose to the windshield? Who was it hurting? Why was it that he could repeatedly worry his change and bite his lower lip without the threat of punishment?

   • 2002, Masha Hamilton, Staircase of a Thousand Steps, page 272:

     No stories, no arguments. He just worries his prayer beads.

6. (transitive, obsolete, Scotland) To strangle.
   • 1891, Journal of Jurisprudence and Scottish Law Magazine (1891), Execution of the Judgment of Death, page 397:

     We read (Law's Memor. Pref. lix.) that "one John Brugh, a notorious warlock (wizard) in the parochin of Fossoquhy, by the space of thirty-six years, was worried at a stake and burned, 1643."

Synonyms

• (trouble mentally): fret

Derived terms

• beworry
• worried

Translations

Noun

worry (countable and uncountable, plural worries)

1. A strong feeling of anxiety.

2. An instance or cause of such a feeling.

3. A person who causes worry.

Derived terms

• worrisome
• worryful
• worryless

Translations

Scots

Verb

worry

1. (transitive) To strangle.

English

Etymology

From Middle English attencioun, borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionis, from attendere, past participle attentus (“to attend, give heed to”); see attend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t?n.??n/

Noun

attention (countable and uncountable, plural attentions)

1. (uncountable) Mental focus.
2. (countable) An action or remark expressing concern for or interest in someone or something, especially romantic interest.
   • 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, ch. 3,

     She attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper.

   • 1910, Stephen Leacock, "How to Avoid Getting Married," in Literary Lapses,

     For some time past I have been the recipient of very marked attentions from a young lady.

3. (uncountable, military) A state of alertness in the standing position.

4. (uncountable, computing) A technique in neural networks that mimics cognitive attention, enhancing the important parts of the input data while giving less priority to the rest.

Synonyms

• (mental focus): heed, notice; see also Thesaurus:attention

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Interjection

attention

1. (military) Used as a command to bring soldiers to the attention position.
2. A call for people to be quiet/stop doing what they are presently doing and pay heed to what they are to be told or shown.

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Antonetti, tentation

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.t??.sj??/

Noun

attention f (uncountable)

1. attention, (mental focus)
2. vigilance
3. attention (concern for or interest in)
4. consideration, thoughtfulness

Derived terms

• faire attention
• prêter attention

Related terms

• attendre
• attentif

Interjection

attention !

1. look out! watch out! careful!

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• tentation