2021-05-01 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – anxious & eager

2021-05-01ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – anxious & eagerแนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

Dictionary.comออกเสียง anxious = ‘ANGK-shuhsออกเสียง eager = ‘EE-ger’British spelling – eager = eagre

Dictionary.comHISTORICAL USAGE OF ANXIOUSThe earliest sense of anxious (in the 17th century) was “troubled” or “worried”: We are still anxious for the safety of our dear sons in battle.

Its meaning “earnestly desirous, eager” arose in the mid-18th century: We are anxious to see our new grandson. Some insist that anxious must always convey a sense of distress or worry and object to its use in the sense of “eager,” but such use is fully standard.

Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree Anxious = worried, troubled; = full of mental distress or uneasiness: She felt anxious about her child’s high fever.; = excited: I’m anxious about the game.Not to be confused with:eager - earnestly desirous, enthusiastic: She was eager to see him again. [These words once had different meanings but anxious is now an acceptable synonym for eager in some cases: He was anxious to see the play.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,anx′ious·ly adv.anx′ious·ness n.Usage Note: Anxious has a long history of use as a synonym for eager, but some prefer that anxious be used only to describe those who are worried or uneasy, as in the sentence He’s anxious about his upcoming surgery.

The acceptability of anxious to mean eager has been increasing, however. In our 1999 survey of the Usage Panel, 47 percent approved of the sentence We are anxious to see the new show of British sculpture at the museum, whereas in 2014, this sentence was acceptable to 57 percent of panelists.

The acceptability was higher for this usage in a sentence about a situation with a tinge of uneasiness: After a four-hour bus ride, the children were anxious to get outside (acceptable to 69 percent of the Panel in 1999 and 78 percent in 2014).

Although resistance to the use of anxious to mean eager is waning,writers should be aware that there are still those who frown upon using the word in situations where no anxiety is present.

Collins COBUILD English Usageanxious1. ‘anxious about’If you are anxious about someone or something, you are worried about them.I was quite anxious about George.

1. ‘anxious to’If you are anxious to do something, you want very much to do it.We are very anxious to find out what really happened.He seemed anxious to go.

Be Careful!Don’t say that someone is ‘anxious for doing’ something.

1. ‘anxious for’If you are anxious for something, you want to have it, or you want it to happen.Many civil servants are anxious for promotion.He was anxious for a deal, and we gave him the best we could.

2. ‘anxious that’If you are anxious that something happen, or anxious that something should happen, you want it to happen very much.My parents were anxious that I go to college.He is anxious that there should be no delay.
3. ‘anxious’ and ‘nervous’Don’t confuse anxious with nervous. If you are nervous, you are rather frightened about something that you are going to do or experience.I began to get nervous about crossing roads.Both actors were very nervous on the day of the performance.

Collins COBUILD English Usagenervous – anxious – irritated – annoyed1. ‘nervous’If you are nervous, you are rather frightened about something that you are going to do or experience.My daughter is nervous about starting school.

1. ‘anxious’If you are worried about something that might happen to someone else, don’t say that you are ‘nervous’. Say that you are anxious.It’s time to be going home – your mother will be anxious.I had to deal with calls from anxious relatives.See anxious

2. ‘irritated’ and ‘annoyed’If something makes you angry and impatient because you cannot stop it continuing, don’t say that it makes you ‘nervous’. Say that you are irritated or annoyed by it.Perhaps they were irritated by the sound of crying.I was annoyed by his questions.

Common Errors In English Usage Dictionaryanxious & eager
Most people use “anxious” interchangeably with “eager,” but its original meaning had to do with worrying, being full of anxiety.

Perfectly correct phrases like, “anxious to please” obscure the nervous tension implicit in this word and lead people to say less correct things like “I’m anxious for Christmas morning to come so, I can open my presents.” Traditionalists frown on anxiety-free anxiousness. Say instead you are eager for or looking forward to a happy event.

Merriam-Webster DictionaryChoose the Right Synonym for anxiousEAGER, AVID, KEEN, ANXIOUS, ATHIRST mean moved by a strong and urgent desire or interest.

EAGER implies ardor and enthusiasm and sometimes impatience at delay or restraint.
eager to get started

AVID adds to EAGER the implication of insatiability or greed.
avid for new thrills

KEEN suggests intensity of interest and quick responsiveness in action.
keen on the latest fashions

ANXIOUS emphasizes fear of frustration or failure or disappointment.
anxious not to make a social blunder

ATHIRST stresses yearning but not necessarily readiness for action.
athirst for adventure

Can anxious Be Used as a Synonym for eager?The fact that individual words can have multiple senses that are closely related in meaning is something which many people find objectionable about the English language.

Anxious is an example of such a word, as people will use it to mean “worried,” “eager (but with an undertone of worry),” and simply “eager.”

The word has been used in the sense of “eager” for a considerable length of time, with evidence going back at least to the 17th century.

Merriam-Webster DictionaryChoose the Right Synonym for eagerEAGER, AVID, KEEN, ANXIOUS, ATHIRST mean moved by a strong and urgent desire or interest. EAGER implies ardor and enthusiasm and sometimes impatience at delay or restraint.
eager to get started
AVID adds to EAGER the implication of insatiability or greed.
avid for new thrills
KEEN suggests intensity of interest and quick responsiveness in action.
keen on the latest fashions
ANXIOUS emphasizes fear of frustration or failure or disappointment.
anxious not to make a social blunder
ATHIRST stresses yearning but not necessarily readiness for action.
athirst for adventure

Merriam-Webster DictionaryUsage NotesCan ‘Anxious’ Be Used to Mean ‘Eager’?Only if you accept the example of some of our most celebrated writers

Are you anxious about whether you may use anxious to mean eager? If you are, we will now proceed to ease your discomfort. If you are not, and have been blithely mixing these words up for years, we will now proceed to introduce some worry into your previously carefree existence.

Many usage guides caution against using anxious in one of the senses for which we provide a definition, which is “ardently or earnestly wishing.”

Here is a sample of what you will see if you turn to most such books for guidance:

Anxious should not be confused with desirous. It means “feeling anxiety.”—Frederick William Hamilton, Word Study and English Grammar, 1918

Anxious/Eager – The distinction is worth preserving. To be anxious about something is to be worried or uneasy about it. To be eager is keenly to desire something.—James J. Kilpatrick, The Writer’s Art, 1984

Why are so many people eager to use anxious improperly? Are they anxious about writing too slowly? Read this carefully: Anxious implies fear and worry.—Lauren Kessler & Duncan McDonald, When Words Collide, 8th Edition, 2012

Anxious means uneasy or worried. Avoid the less precise sense as a synonym for eager.—Allan M. Siegal & William Connolly, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, 5th Edition, 2015

Eager is the older of the two words, dating in use to the 13th century. However, the earliest sense of this word was not the one that is commonly found today; it initially had the meaning of “marked of its kind by reason of notable development of some quality (such as sourness, savor, fierceness, violence, chill, or vigor).”

It did not take on the sense of “desiring” until the 16th century, around the same time that anxious began to be used. Our earliest evidence for anxious comes from 1529, in Thomas More’s The Supplycacyon of Soulys: “for to shew that he hath not left hys anxyouse fauour toward his natyue country….”

When did people begin to treat anxious as a synonym of sorts for eager? The Oxford English Dictionary has citations for such use dating from 1570, so it has been used in this fashion for almost 450 years, if not longer. And for most of this time the fact that anxious was working one job in which it meant “worried” and then moonlighting at another one where it meant “eager” didn’t seem to bother people.

For evidence that this mixing up of anxious and eager didn’t raise hackles until the 20th century, we may look at the writings of professional nitpickers of grammar and usage from the 19th; many of them appear to have used anxious to mean “desirous of” when writing books which may be classified as “scolding people for the bad way they use the English language.”

To please Mr. Gould, who seems to be very anxious to prolong this controversy, I continue my criticisms on his language.—G. Washington Moon, Bad English Exposed: A Series of Criticisms on the Errors and Inconsistencies of Lindley Murray and other Grammarians, 4th ed., 1871

…though they unquestionably laid claim to a kingly dignity that the nation was not anxious to concede to them.—Gilbert M. Tucker, Our Common Speech, 1895

I mention, as in courtesy bound, an account of this construction which has been sent me by a correspondent anxious to vindicate Shakspere from having used a modern vulgarism.—Henry Alford, A Plea for the Queen’s English, 1864

Occasionally a guide in the 20th century would point out that the use of anxious to mean eager was well-established, and not really that much of a problem (H. W. Fowler, in his 1926 Modern English Usage wrote that the objections to anxious as eager were “negligible” and that the use was “almost universally current”), but for the most part the people who write books on how language should be used have argued against it.

So, what should you do?Whether you choose to retain the distinction between anxious and eager is entirely up to you. On the one hand, if you use anxious in the sense of eager, most usage guides will disagree with your choice. On the other hand, this use is quite common, and a fair number of writers (including Jane Austen, Kingsley Amis, Lord Byron, Flannery O’Connor, and several thousand others) have been using anxious in this fashion for hundreds of years now.

Dictionary of Problem Words in Englishanxious & eagerIn careful use, anxious implies anxiety, worry, or uneasiness:“The physician was anxious about the pulse rate of his patient.”

Eager means “keenly desirous,” “wanting to”; “Bob was eager to see his old friend.”

Eager is rarely used where anxious is meant, but anxious is often incorrectly substituted for eager: “The small boy was eager (not anxious) to go fishing.”

One is anxious about something of which he is fearful.He is eager concerning something looked forward to.