English
stress
Stress is a shortening of Middle English destresse, from Old French destrecier ‘to distress’, from Latin distringō ‘to stretch apart’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstringō1‘to draw tight together’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdistringō1‘to stretch out, apart’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400destrecier1‘to distress’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500destresse1
- Englishearliest quotation 1590stress1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English stress
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto II: “With this sad Hersal of his heavy stress, The…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstringōWiktionary, English stress‘to draw tight together’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdistringōWiktionary, English stress‘to stretch out, apart’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400destrecierWiktionary, English stress‘to distress’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500destresseWiktionary, English stress
- Englishearliest quotation 1590stressWiktionary, English stress. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto II: “With this sad Hersal of his heavy stress, The…”
The story
This form probably coalesced with Middle English stresse, from Old French estrece (‘narrowness’), from Vulgar Latin *strictia, from Latin strictus (‘narrow’). In the sense of "mental strain" or “disruption”, used occasionally in the 1920s and 1930s by psychologists, including Walter Cannon (1934); in “biological threat”, used by endocrinologist Hans Selye, by metaphor with stress in physics (force on an object) in the 1930s, and popularized by same in the 1950s.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with stress, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- ‘to twist’
through Proto-Indo-European *stréngʰeti
- vasoconstriction ← constriction ← cōnstrictiō ← cōnstringō ← stringō
through Proto-Italic *strengō
- restriction ← restriccioun ← restrictiō ← restringō ← stringō
- restrict ← restrictus ← restringō ← stringō
- constraint ← constreynt ← constreinte ← cōnstringō ← stringō
- restrain ← restreinen ← restreindre ← rēstringō ← stringō
- constrain ← constreinen ← constreindre ← cōnstringō ← stringō
- constriction ← constrictio ← constringo ← stringō
- constrictor ← constrict ← cōnstrictus ← cōnstringō ← stringō
- constrict ← cōnstrictus ← cōnstringō ← stringō
143 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “stress”. 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 / Latin stringō / stress