Etymograph

English

angst

Angst may come from German Angst ‘fear’.

  1. Germanc. 1650–presentAngst1‘fear’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1979angst1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English angst
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1979, Peter Hammill: “I've begun to regret that we'd ever met /…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Germanc. 1650–presentAngstWiktionary, English angst‘fear’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1979angstWiktionary, English angst. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1979, Peter Hammill: “I've begun to regret that we'd ever met /…”

The story

Borrowed from German Angst or Danish angst; attested since the 19th century in English translations of the works of Søren Kierkegaard. Initially capitalized (as in German and contemporaneous Danish), the term first began to be written with a lowercase "a" around 1940–44. The German and Danish terms both derive from Middle High German angest, from Old High German angust, from Proto-Germanic *angustiz; related to anguish, Dutch angst, Swedish ångest.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂enǵʰ- ‘to constrict’

anxiety, angry, anxious, anger, anguish, angrily, angina, 12 more

through Proto-Germanic *anguz ‘narrow, tight’

eng

Today it means

noun Emotional turmoil; painful sadness; anguish.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “angst”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / German Angst / angst

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