English Explanatory Dictionary

nervous

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj

Of sinews and tendons.
Full of sinews.
Having strong or prominent sinews; sinewy, muscular.
Of a piece of writing, literary style etc.: forceful, powerful.
Of nerves.
Supplied with nerves; innervated.
Affecting or involving the nerves or nervous system.
Nervose.
Easily agitated or alarmed; edgy, on edge.
Apprehensive, anxious, hesitant, worried.

Pronunciation

/ˈnɜːvəs/ /ˈnɝːvəs/ en-us-nervous.ogg /ˈnɑvəs/ en-au-nervous.ogg

Word forms

nervous more nervous nervouser most nervous nervousest

Etymology

From Middle English nervous (“composed of or incorporating nerves”), from Latin nervōsus (“nervous; sinewy; energetic, vigorous”), from nervus (“nerve; muscle; sinew, tendon; (figuratively) energy, power; nerve; force, strength, vigour”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *snéh₁wr̥ (“sinew, tendon”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is analysable as nerve + -ous.

Synonyms

angstful apprehensive anxious careful concerned distraught disturbed edgy fraught freaked out hagridden high-strung jittery jumpy leery nervous nervy on edge perturbable restless skittish spookish squeamish tied in knots twitchy uneasy unquiet verklempt worried worrisome worryful excitable hypersensitive

Antonyms

calm intrepid unperturbed unworried relaxed

Related words

nervosity fantod (medical term) nervous nelly nervous hit nail biter have butterflies in one's stomach get cold feet sweat bullets afraid cautious excited

Derived words

as nervous as a witch autonomic nervous system central nervous system electronervous enteric nervous system internervous nervcited nervicited nervited nervous as a cat nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs nervous as a whore in church nervous breakdown nervous energy nervous hit nervously nervous-Nellie nervous nellie nervous nelly nervous-Nelly nervousness nervous nineties nervous pudding nervous Purvis nervous tissue nervous wreck nonnervous overnervous parasympathetic nervous system perinervous peripheral nervous system seminervous somatic nervous system sympathetic nervous system unnervous vasculonervous vegetative nervous system

Translations

Armenian: նյարդային Asturian: nerviosu Bulgarian: не́рвен Bulgarian: на нервите Catalan: nerviós Czech: nervový Danish: nerve- Esperanto: nerva Finnish: hermo- French: nerveux Galician: nervioso Hindi: तंत्रिकीय Hungarian: ideg- Hungarian: idegi Irish: néarógach Italian: nervoso Japanese: 神経の Northern Kurdish: agirnok Macedonian: не́рвен Middle English: nervous Norman: nèrveux Polish: nerwowy Portuguese: nervoso Romanian: nervos Russian: не́рвный Slovak: nervový Slovene: živčen Spanish: nervioso Turkish: sinirsel Ukrainian: нерво́вий Welsh: nerfol

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

Back to search All on N Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary