c. 1200, "acute bodily or mental suffering," from Old French anguisse, angoisse "choking sensation, distress, anxiety, rage" (12c.), from Latin angustia (plural angustiae) "tightness, straitness, narrowness;" figuratively "distress, difficulty," from ang(u)ere "to throttle, torment" (from PIE root *angh- "tight, painfully constricted, painful").

mid-14c., angwisshen, intransitive and reflexive ("be troubled or distressed; feel agony") and transitive ("cause grief, distress,or torment"); from Old French angoissier (12c., Modern French angoisser), from angoisse "distress, anxiety, rage" (see anguish (n.)). Related: Anguished; anguishing.

late 14c., "full of anguish," past-participle adjective from anguish (v.). From c. 1800 as "expressing anguish."

(obsolete) "full of wrath," also "anxious," early 13c., from Old French angoissos "anxious, worried, distressed; difficult; painful," from angoisse "distress, anxiety, rage" (see anguish (n.)). Related: Anguishously.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "tight, painfully constricted, painful."

It forms all or part of: agnail; anger; angina; angry; angst; anguish; anxious; hangnail; quinsy.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit amhu- "narrow," amhah "anguish;" Armenian anjuk "narrow;" Lithuanian ankštas "narrow;" Greek ankhein "to squeeze," ankhone "a strangling;" Latin angere "to throttle, torment;" Old Irish cum-ang "straitness, want;" Old English enge "narrow, painful," Old Norse angra "to grieve, vex, distress," Gothic aggwus "narrow."

c. 1300, "the inflicting of torture," also "state of great suffering, pain, distress," from Old French torment "torture, pain, anguish, suffering distress" (11c., Modern French tourment), from Latin tormentum "twisted cord, sling; clothes-press; instrument for hurling stones," also "instrument of torture, a rack," figuratively "anguish, pain, torment," from torquere "to twist" (from PIE root *terkw- "to twist").

Middle English biternesse, from Old English biternys "bitterness" of taste or smell," also "anguish, grief, misery;" see bitter + -ness. By mid-14c. as "ill will, malice."

"impatience under affliction," 1842, from Greek dysphoria "pain hard to be borne, anguish," etymologically "hard to bear," from dys- "bad, hard" (see dys-) + pherein "to carry" (from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry").

also heartache, late Old English heort ece "physical pain in or near the heart;" from heart (n.) + ache (n.). Sense of "anguish of mind" is from c. 1600; Old English did, however, have heartsarnes "grief," literally "heart-soreness;" Middle English had herte-smerte "sorrow, contrition."

"cross-shaped, having the form of a cross with equal arms," 1826, from Modern Latin cruciatus, from Latin crux (genitive crucis) "cross" (see crux (n.)). Obsolete meaning "tormented" is 1530s, from Latin cruciat-, past participle stem of cruciare "cause pain or anguish to," literally "crucify," from crux. Related: Cruciately; cruciation.