Word of the Day

: September 16, 2006

solicitous

adjective suh-LIS-uh-tus

What It Means

1 : full of concern or fears : apprehensive

2 : meticulously careful

3 : full of desire : eager

solicitous in Context

"She nursed him, she read to him, she anticipated his wants, and was solicitous about his feelings." (George Eliot, Middlemarch)

Did You Know?

If you're solicitous about learning the connections between words, you'll surely want to know about the relationship between "solicitous" and another word you've probably heard before-"solicit." "Solicitous" doesn't come from "solicit," but the two words are related. They both have their roots in the Latin word "sollicitus," meaning "anxious." "Solicitous" itself came directly from this Latin word, whereas "solicit" made its way to English with a few more steps. From "sollicitus" came the Latin verb "sollicitare," meaning "to disturb, agitate, move, or entreat." Forms of this verb were borrowed into Anglo-French, and then Middle English, and have survived in Modern English as "solicit."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.