Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish.
adjective angstier or angstiest
- informal displaying or feeling angst, esp in a self-conscious mannertwo angsty teenagers
noun
- an acute but nonspecific sense of anxiety or remorse
- (in Existentialist philosophy) the dread caused by man’s awareness that his future is not determined but must be freely chosen
1944, from German Angst “neurotic fear, anxiety, guilt, remorse,” from Old High German angust, from the root of anger. George Eliot used it (in German) in 1849, and it was popularized in English by translation of Freud’s work, but as a foreign word until 1940s. Old English had a cognate word, angsumnes “anxiety,” but it died out.
A kind of fear or anxiety; Angst is German for “fear.” It is usually applied to a deep and essentially philosophical anxiety about the world in general or personal freedom. (See existentialism.)