inquietude means A condition of being restless, uneasy or nervous.
Why “inquietude” is a great word
A state of restlessness, uneasiness, or anxiety. Learned borrowing from Latin inquiētūdō, from inquiētus ("restless, unquiet") + -tūdō (noun-forming suffix indicating state or condition), first recorded in English in the late Middle English period (1400–1500). Unlike "disquietude," which implies a deeper worry rooted in a specific cause, or "agitation," which denotes visible, physical disturbance, inquietude is a more general and internal hum of disquiet. It is the mind circling its own emptiness before dawn, the fingers tapping a soundless rhythm on a desk, the particular silence of a house where someone is expected but does not arrive—the persistent background radiation of a self that cannot settle.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin inquiētūdō.
noun
- A condition of being restless, uneasy or nervous.e.g.“Yet, I confess, my frankness has involved me in many after thoughts and inquietudes; inquietudes, which all my reasoning is, at times, insufficient to allay.” — 1796, Mary Hays, Marilyn L. Brooks ed., Memoirs of Emma Courtney, published 1999, page 121:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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