Origin: Latin
suffix -ous
Nervous has 7 different meanings across 1 category:
Adjective
Adjective
1
easily agitated
"a nervous addict"
"a nervous thoroughbred"
2
causing or fraught with or showing anxiety
"spent an anxious night waiting for the test results"
"cast anxious glances behind her"
"those nervous moments before takeoff"
"an unquiet mind"
3
of or relating to the nervous system
"nervous disease"
"neural disorder"
4
excited in anticipation
"She felt nervous about her first solo performance, but it was an exciting kind of nervousness that made her heart race."
5
unpredictably excitable (especially of horses)
"The young horse became nervous and started bucking uncontrollably when the rider attempted to mount."
6
Of sinews and tendons.
"The old man's nervous twitched visibly as he reached across the table to grab his coffee cup."
7
Full of sinews.
"The old oak tree was so nervous that its branches seemed ready to snap under the weight of a heavy storm."
In plain English: Feeling nervous means you are worried, anxious, or easily startled about something that might go wrong.
"She felt nervous before her first job interview but tried to take deep breaths to calm down."
Example Sentences
"She felt nervous before her first job interview but tried to take deep breaths to calm down."
adj
"She felt nervous before her big presentation at work."
adj
"My dog gets nervous whenever there is thunder outside."
adj
"He looked nervous about the upcoming interview with the manager."
adj
Related Terms
Show all 104 terms ↓
Origin
The word nervous comes from the Latin nervus, which originally meant a physical sinew or muscle but also figuratively referred to energy and strength. It entered Middle English describing things composed of nerves before taking on its modern sense of being anxious or tense.