eagerness









eagerness


adjective

  1. keen or ardent in desire or feeling; impatiently longing: I am eager for news about them. He is eager to sing.
  2. characterized by or revealing great earnestness: an eager look.
  3. Obsolete. keen; sharp; biting.

adjective

  1. (postpositive; often foll by to or for) impatiently desirous (of); anxious or avid (for)he was eager to see her departure
  2. characterized by or feeling expectancy or great desirean eager look
  3. archaic tart or biting; sharp

noun

  1. a variant spelling of eagre
adj.

late 13c., “strenuous, ardent, fierce, angry,” from Old French aigre “sour, acid; harsh, bitter, rough; eager greedy; lively, active, forceful,” from Latin acrem (nominative acer) “keen, sharp, pointed, piercing; acute, ardent, zealous” (see acrid).

Meaning “full of keen desire” (early 14c.) seems to be peculiar to English. The English word kept an alternative meaning of “pungent, sharp-edged” till 19c. (e.g. Shakespeare’s “The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,” in “Richard II”). Related: Eagerly; eagerness.

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