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apprehensive

adjective

ap·​pre·​hen·​sive ˌa-pri-ˈhen(t)-siv How to pronounce apprehensive (audio)
1
: viewing the future with anxiety or alarm : feeling or showing fear or apprehension about the future
… many adults who do not think twice about the risks of driving an automobile are apprehensive about flying. Henry Petroski
2
: capable of understanding or quick to do so : discerning
3
: having awareness or knowledge of something : cognizant
apprehensively adverb
apprehensiveness noun

Did you know?

How has the meaning of apprehensive changed over time?

When Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar “And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive,” he was not using the word apprehensive with the meaning which we so often encounter today (“viewing the future with anxiety or alarm”). The Bard was using the word’s older meaning of “capable of understanding or quick to do so” or “showing insight and understanding.” Apprehensive has shifted its meaning considerably in the seven hundred or so years it has been inhabiting our language. Its earliest meanings had to do with apprehension, to be sure, but it was apprehension meaning “the act of learning,” (a sense that is now obsolete) or “the act or faculty or grasping with the intellect.” The words apprehensive and apprehension both have roots in the Latin words prehendere meaning “to seize.”

Synonyms

Choose the Right Synonym for apprehensive

fearful, apprehensive, afraid mean disturbed by fear.

fearful implies often a timorous or worrying temperament.

the child is fearful of loud noises

apprehensive suggests a state of mind and implies a premonition of evil or danger.

apprehensive of being found out

afraid often suggests weakness or cowardice and regularly implies inhibition of action or utterance.

afraid to speak the truth

Example Sentences

When the Crossroads Rhode Island social services agency switched to a 401(k) retirement plan from a pension last year, it added a feature that made some employees apprehensive. To ensure that as many employees as possible saved for retirement, the Providence nonprofit chose to automatically enroll all its workers into the 401(k) plan and deduct a minimum of 4 percent from their paychecks. Andrew Caffrey, Boston Sunday Globe, 2 Oct. 2005 … Sargent, a shrewder character, was apprehensive about how the portrait would be viewed by the conventional crowds for whom a day out at the Salon was a social fixture in the Paris calendar. He was right. The public saw nothing lovely in this pallid, long- nosed woman with her prominent chin and superior smile. Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review, 28 Sept. 2003 I arrived at my first Lamaze class the same way I showed up for my baby showers and ob-gyn appointments: a little excited, a little apprehensive, but mostly obediently, because it's what you're supposed to do when you're pregnant. Paula Spencer, Parenting, April 1997 I'm fully apprehensive of the options, I assure you.
Recent Examples on the Web Politicians up and down the state continue to placate an apprehensive public, staking out opposing sides of the ideological spectrum to talk about reducing crime, while often shying away from specific, sustainable solutions. Erika D. Smithcolumnist, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2022 Vladimir Putin relishes blackmailing an apprehensive and intimidated Europe with access to natural gas. Paul Roderick Gregory, WSJ, 24 Aug. 2022 Lucas Shaw notes that this might be a concession to apprehensive filmmakers. Jacob Siegal, BGR, 22 Aug. 2022 His then fiancée, Justine Wilson, later the author of the fantasy novel BloodAngel, appeared apprehensive. Horacio Silva, Town & Country, 18 Aug. 2022 Today, and around the world, people are apprehensive. Marc Berman, Forbes, 6 July 2022 In 2014, Graham was apprehensive when asked about her future plans with Krause during an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Dory Jackson, PEOPLE.com, 17 June 2022 Although executive editor Ben Bradlee was open to the idea of a film, publisher Katharine Graham was apprehensive. Washington Post, 9 June 2022 This has understandably made those most impacted by the conflict, who worked hard to broker peace, apprehensive. Julia Margaret Zulver, CNN, 19 June 2022 See More

Word History

Etymology

see apprehension

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Time Traveler
The first known use of apprehensive was in the 14th century

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