Angst
Etymology
From German and Danish “angst” (fear, anxiety), descending from Proto-Germanic “*angustiz” and akin to Latin “angustia” (tightness, distress) and “angere,” to choke or squeeze — the same constriction felt in “anguish.” English adopted it in the early 20th century through the existentialist philosophy of Kierkegaard, whose Danish “angest” named the dizziness of freedom, and later through Freudian psychology.
noun · /AHNGKST/
A deep, often existential anxiety or dread about life, freedom, and one’s place in the world.
What it names
The gnawing unease that comes not from a specific danger but from confronting the openness and responsibility of existence.
Example
Her twenties were one long spell of angst, the freedom to become anything curdling into a fear of choosing wrong.
Related idea
Ordinary worry fastens onto concrete problems; angst is unmoored and metaphysical, an unease about being itself rather than about the bills.