The state of mind (and therefore a place) in which you feel nervous or anxious for things within the immediate time. "Does this dress make me look fat?" is an example of anxiety in the present. "Am I ready for this exam?" and "I hope I did well on the exam" are examples of future and past anxiety. "I trust my ass chip to Linux" is an example of not being anxious at all.

A state of mind caused sometimes by not being able to answer questions. These questions are usually the ones that science can't answer, so people turn to religion and faith to answer these questions - it's based on faith, which doesn't need empiracal evidence to support it, unless you're trying to convert someone, in which case they'll ask for empirical evidence, and then an argument usually erupts.

A state of mind wherein logic disapears and is replaced fear. Anxiety before an exam or final for example will often result in a complete disregard for studied material and subsequent failiure of the said exam or final. Some believe anxiety to be an extrodinarily virulent virus which infects a large proportion of college students every 5 months, with the exception of those who have no social contact and therefore no contact with the said virus. Synonyms include: fear, mind-killer, bane of my existence, and extreme uneasiness which makes me you want to puke your guts out because of the inpending doom.

Freud's take on anxiety was that it was a state seeking an object. In other words, first we feel anxious, then look for something to feel anxious about.

"Tell me, with your own words what, exactly, is the source of this anxiousness of yours, if you can", told the psychiatrist to his patient.

"Well, it all began when I got married. My wife had a grown-up daughter who, thus, became my step-daughter. Then my father came to visit and congratulate me on behalf of my wedding. He fell in love with my step-daughter and later they married too. Hence, my step-daughter became my step-mother. My wife had a son who automatically became my father's brother-in-law, because he is the step-brother of the step-daughter married to my father. Since the boy is the brother of my step-mother, he is also my uncle. My father's wife also had a son who is my brother eventhough, at the same time, I am his grand-father - he is the son of my step-daughter, after all. My wife is my grand-mother, the mother of my step-mother. From this it follows that I am the grand-son of my own wife. Taking into consideration that I am married to my grand-mother, I am not only the husband and grand-son of my wife but, I am also my own grand-father."

"That's what makes me anxious."

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This joke is not originally mine but, I took the liberty to translate and slightly edit it.

Anx*i"e*ty (#), n.; pl. Anxieties (#). [L. anxietas, fr. anxius: cf. F. anxi'et'e. See Anxious.]

1.

Concern or solicitude respecting some thing ovent, future or uncertain, which disturbs the mind, and keeps it in a state of painful uneasiness.

2.

Eager desire.

J. D. Forbes

3. Med.

A state of restlessness and agitation, often with general indisposition and a distressing sense of oppression at the epigastrium.

Dunglison.

Syn. -- Care; solicitude; foreboding; uneasiness; perplexity; disquietude; disquiet; trouble; apprehension; restlessness. See Care.

 

© Webster 1913.