Urgent means needing action immediately, since it cannot wait. An urgent message.
It is not the same as important, and confusing the two decides how most days are spent. Everything marked urgent stops anything being urgent, which is why the label wears out.
1adjectiveurgentNeeding action immediately — it cannot wait.
“The urgent request had been sitting unopened for four days.”
urgent is a quality.
From Latin urgeō, to press. Something urgent is pressing on you, which is still exactly how it feels.
Proto-Indo-European
*werǵʰ- — bind, squeeze
Latin
urgēns
Middle French
urgent — pressing, impelling
English, today
urgent
Built from
Borrowed from Middle French urgent (“pressing, impelling”), from Latin urgēns, from urgeo (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European werǵʰ- (“bind, squeeze”). Equivalent to urge + ent. Related to German würgen (“to strangle”), Lithuanian verzti (“to string, tighten, constrict”), Russian - (poetic) отверза́ть (“to open”) literally “to untie”, Polish otwierać (“to open”)) and English worry, wring, wreak, wreck.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA