angst

The story

1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*angustiz
2. Old High German · derived fromangust
3. Middle High German · derived fromangest
4. Danish · borrowed fromangst
5. German · borrowed fromAngst
6. English todayangst

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.