Other forms: distresses
Distress is serious trouble, and the call that goes out about it. A distress call, a ship in distress, cause distress.
At sea and in the air, distress is a defined state meaning grave and imminent danger, and it outranks urgency — the mayday call is reserved for it. In law, distress is also the seizing of goods for debt. Note that the word comes from the Latin for drawing tight, the same root as strict.
1noundistressSerious trouble or suffering.
“The whale was in distress after getting caught in a fishing net.”
2nounsignallingA call signalling grave danger.
“The fishing boat sent out a distress signal as it began to sink.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
distress is serious trouble.
Old French destrecier comes from Latin districtus, drawn apart or tight, from stringere. Strict and strain come from the same tightening.
Proto-Indo-European
*streyg-
Old French
destrecier — to restrain, constrain, put in straits, afflict, distress
Middle English
distressen
English, today
distress
The verb is from Middle English distressen, from Old French destrecier (“to restrain, constrain, put in straits, afflict, distress”); compare French détresse. Ultimately from Medieval Latin - as if districtiō, an assumed frequentative form of Latin distringō (“to pull asunder, stretch out”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringō (“to draw tight, strain”). The noun is from Middle English distresse, from Old French destrece, ultimately also from Latin distringō.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA