nervose

Nervose is an English adjective that is now uncommon and largely confined to historical or stylistic contexts. In older texts, it functioned as a variant or near synonym of nervous, denoting someone excitable, easily unsettled, or energized by nerves. Some uses reflect a more literal, medical sense related to the nerves, but in contemporary English the sense of nervousness or agitation is typically expressed with nervous or jittery.

Etymology and related forms trace nervose to Latin nervosus “full of nerves,” from nervus “nerve,” and it arrived in English through Latin and early Romance channels. It is closely related to the modern adjective nervous and to cognates in other languages, such as French nerveux.

Usage and status: Today nervose is generally described as archaic or obsolete. It appears most often in 18th- and 19th-century prose, translations of Classical or medical Latin texts, and in writings that aim to evoke an antique or solemn tone. In current dictionaries, it is usually marked as rare, archaic, or historical, with modern writers preferring nervous or related terms to convey the intended sense.

See also: Nervous, Nervous system, Nervosity.