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Anguish
Definitions
- 1 A surname.
"Edmund Anguish of Somerleighton"
- 2 A male given name. rare
"[…] been ready and willing to take one of the children by her husband, not being the eldest, to live with her; and that she did afterwards fix upon one of such children, named Anguish, and did request her husband to permit the said child to reside and live with her, […] and the defendant futher pleaded, that the said Anguish, the said child in the said declaration mentioned was not born at the time of the sealing and delivering of the said indenture, but long afterwards."
- 1 Extreme pain, either of body or mind; excruciating distress. countable, uncountable
"So, ye miserable people; you must go to God in anguishes, and make your prayer to him."
- 2 extreme mental distress wordnet
- 3 extreme distress of body or mind wordnet
- 1 To suffer pain. intransitive
"c. 1900s, Kl. Knigge, Iceland Folk Song, traditional, Harmony: H. Ruland We’re leaving these shores for our time has come, the days of our youth must now end. The hearts bitter anguish, it burns for the home that we’ll never see again."
- 2 cause emotional anguish or make miserable wordnet
- 3 To cause to suffer pain. transitive
- 4 suffer great pains or distress wordnet
Etymology
From Middle English angwissh, anguishe, angoise, from Anglo-Norman anguise, anguisse, from Old French angoisse, from Latin angustia (“narrowness, scarcity, difficulty, distress”), from angustus (“narrow, difficult”), from angere (“to press together, cause pain, distress”). See angst, the Germanic cognate, and anger.
From Middle English angwischen, anguis(s)en, from Old French angoissier, anguissier, from the noun (see Etymology 1).
The given name, most famously borne by the character of King Anguish of Ireland, is thought to be a variant of Aengus/Angus, from Irish. The surname is probably also a variant of Angus.
See also for "anguish"
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