eagerness

eagerness

English

Alternative forms

• eagreness (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English egernesse, egrenesse; equivalent to eager +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈiɡɚnəs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈiːɡənəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ea‧ger‧ness

Noun

eagerness (usually uncountable, plural eagernesses)

1. The state or quality of being eager; ardent desire.
   • 1909: Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

     The things he had to tell about...were enough to make you almost tremble with excitement, when you heard all the intimate details from an animal charmer and realized with what thrilling eagerness and anxiety the whole busy underworld was working.

2. (obsolete) Tartness; sourness

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for eagerness in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Translations

The state or quality of being eager

Bulgarian: желание (bg) (želanie), готовност (bg) (gotovnost), нетърпение (bg) (netǎrpenie) Catalan: ànsia (ca) f, afany (ca) m German: Eifer (de) m Greek: Ancient: προθυμία m (prothumía)

Latin: studium (la) n Maori: pōnānātanga Portuguese: ânimo (pt) m Spanish: avidez (es) f, ansia m Volapük: ledesir (vo)

Anagrams

• Gerasenes, eagreness, green seas, sea greens