• enPR: ăngʹ-gwĭsh, IPA: /ˈæŋ.ɡwɪʃ/

From Middle English angwissh, anguishe, angoise, from Anglo-Norman anguise, anguisse, from Old French angoisse, from Latin angustia, from angustus, from angere.

anguish

1. Extreme pain, either of body or mind; excruciating distress.

   Synonyms: agony, calvary, cross, pang, torture, torment, Thesaurus:agony

   • 1549, Hugh Latimer, "The Third Sermon Preached before King Edward VI:

     So, ye miserable people; you must go to God in anguishes, and make your prayer to him.

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene i]:

     Is there no play,
     To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto LIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     Love of your selfe, she saide, and deare constraint,
     Lets me not sleepe, but wast the wearie night
     In secret anguish and unpittied plaint,
     Whiles you in carelesse sleepe are drowned quight.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Exodus 6:9 ↗:

     But they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Cinyras and Myrrha, out of the Tenth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphosis”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:

     There, loathing Life, and yet of Death afraid,
     In Anguish of her Spirit, thus she pray'd.

   • 1708, [John Philips], “Book I”, in Cyder. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:

     May I the sacred pleasures know
     Of strictest amity, nor ever want
     A friend with whom I mutually may share
     Gladness and anguish […]

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 18, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC ↗:

     She took his trembling hand, and kissed it, and put it round her neck: she called him her John—her dear John—her old man—her kind old man; she poured out a hundred words of incoherent love and tenderness; her faithful voice and simple caresses wrought this sad heart up to an inexpressible delight and anguish, and cheered and solaced his over-burdened soul.

   • 1889, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles:

     A terrible scream—a prolonged yell of horror and anguish—burst out of the silence of the moor. That frightful cry turned the blood to ice in my veins.

• French: angoisse de la mort, affres de la mort, calvaire, croix
• German: Kreuz, Agonie, Todesangst, Qual, tiefer Schmerz
• Italian: angoscia, agonia, calvario, croce, ambascia
• Portuguese: agonia, angústia
• Russian: му́ка
• Spanish: angustia, congoja

From Middle English angwischen, anguis(s)en, from Old French angoissier, anguissier, from the noun (see Etymology 1).

anguish (anguishes, present participle anguishing; simple past and past participle anguished)

1. (intransitive) To suffer pain.
   • c. 1900s, Kl. Knigge, Iceland Folk Song, traditional, Harmony: H. Ruland

     We’re leaving these shores for our time has come, the days of our youth must now end. The hearts bitter anguish, it burns for the home that we’ll never see again.

2. (transitive) To cause to suffer pain.

• German: sich quälen, leiden
• Italian: angosciarsi
• Portuguese: angustiar
• Russian: терза́ться
• Spanish: angustiar (pronominal)

• German: quälen
• Italian: angosciare
• Portuguese: angustiar
• Russian: терза́ть
• Spanish: angustiar

The given name, most famously borne by the character of King Anguish of Ireland, is thought to be a variant of Aengus/Angus, from Irish -.

1. Surname.
   • 1698 December 29, record from Thorington, printed in 1884 Thomas Smythe Hill, The registers of the parish of Thorington, page 56:

     Edmund Anguish of Somerleighton

2. (rare) A male given name