Etymology

Sturm und Drang

Today it means: A proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music which occurred from the late 1760s to the early 1780s, emphasizing individual subjectivity and the free expression of emotions. Full definition →

German Sturm und Drang
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The story

  1. German · borrowed fromSturm und Drang
  2. English todaySturm und Drang

Borrowed from German Sturm und Drang with the same figurative meaning, from Sturm (“storm”) + und (“and”) + Drang (“pressure, stress; urge, impulse, longing”). The phrase is the title of the play Sturm und Drang (1776) by German dramatist Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (1752–1831). The fact that the phrase is often italicized suggests it has not been fully assimilated into English.

Words from the same roots

GermanSturm und Drang all →

storm and stress

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.