2021-05-02
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – anxious & eager
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง anxious = ‘ANGK-shuhs
ออกเสียง eager = ‘EE-ger’
British spelling – eager = eagre
Dictionary.com
HISTORICALUSAGE OF ANXIOUS
The earliest senseof 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 foreager
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,
butsome prefer that anxious be used
only to describe those who are worried or uneasy,
as inthe sentence
He's anxious about his upcoming surgery.
The acceptabilityof anxious to mean eager has been increasing,
however. In our 1999 survey of the Usage Panel,
47percent 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 acceptabilitywas 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 resistanceto 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 Usage
anxious
1. 'anxiousabout'
If you are anxious about someone or something,
you are worried about them.
I was quite anxious about George.
2. 'anxiousto'
If you are anxious to do something,
you want very muchto 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.
3. 'anxious for'
If you are anxious for something,
you want to haveit, 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.
4. 'anxious that'
If you are anxious that something happen,
or anxious that something should happen,
you want it to happenvery much.
My parents were anxious that I go to college.
He is anxious that there should be no delay.
5. 'anxious' and 'nervous'
Don'tconfuse anxious with nervous.
If you are nervous, you are rather frightened about something
that you are going to door experience.
I began to get nervous about crossing roads.
Both actors were very nervous on the day of the performance.
Collins COBUILD English Usage
nervous – anxious – irritated – annoyed
1. '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.
2. 'anxious'
If you are worried about something that might happen to someone else, don't saythat you are 'nervous'.
Say thatyou 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
3. 'irritated' and 'annoyed'
If something makes you angryand impatient
because you cannot stop it continuing,
don't saythat it makes you 'nervous'.
Say thatyou 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 Dictionary
anxious& 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 anxiousfor Christmas morning to come
so, I can open my presents.”
Traditionalists frown on anxiety-free anxiousness.
Say insteadyou are eager for or looking forward to a happy event.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for anxious
EAGER, 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 thatindividual words
can have multiple senses that are closely related in meaning
is something which many people
find objectionableabout the English language.
Anxious is an example of such a word,
aspeople will use it to mean "worried," "eager
(but with an undertoneof worry)," and simply "eager."
The wordhas 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 Dictionary
Choosethe Right Synonym for eager
EAGER, AVID, KEEN, ANXIOUS, ATHIRST
meanmoved 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 Dictionary
Usage Notes
Can 'Anxious' Be Used to Mean 'Eager'?
Only if
you accept the example of some of our most celebrated writers
Are you anxiousabout 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 iskeenly to desire something.
—James J. Kilpatrick, The Writer’s Art, 1984
Why are so many people eagerto use anxious improperly?
Are they anxiousabout writing too slowly?
Read this carefully: Anxious implies fear and worry.
—Lauren Kessler & Duncan McDonald, When Words Collide, 8th Edition, 2012
Anxious meansuneasy 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 kindby 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 timethat anxious began to be used.
Our earliest evidencefor 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 upof anxious and eager
didn’t raise hackles until the 20th century,
we may look at the writings of professional nitpickers of grammar
and usagefrom the 19th;
many of them appear to have used anxious to mean “desirous of”
when writing books which may be classified
as “scolding peoplefor 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 vindicateShakspere 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 English
anxious& eager
In carefuluse, 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 anxiousis often incorrectly substituted for eager:
“The small boy was eager (not anxious) to go fishing.”
Oneis anxious about something of which he is fearful.
He is eager concerning
something looked forward to.
