An alarmist is a harmless alarmist or an emotional vampire? The meaning, interpretation and origin of the unusual word

Do you know a person who is very concerned about the political, economic or religious situation in the country? Is so worried that he can not resist the temptation to tell you about his anxiety? A man who, with burning eyes, watches another issue of news, then a week to talk about what he saw all his friends? If you know such a person, then you know, you have an alarmist. The meaning of the word, its origin and history are discussed below.

Who are alarmists?

Unfortunately, following simple logic, one must recognize that in the modern world a person is not only the herald of technological progress, but also its victim. The geopolitical situation on the planet, constant wars, interethnic conflicts, the threat of nuclear war - all these topics invariably occupy the front pages of newspapers, are daily discussed in television news, fill information portals and social networks.

Some people treat this kind of information quite calmly, while others take everything to heart, long can not forget what they saw and switch to something more positive and, not least, more vital. A person inclined to be overly concerned with external events is sometimes called an alarmist. This word has an interesting and unusual story.

The origin of the word "alarmist"

When the new word came into Russian (and it happened, it seems, several centuries ago), he had to gain popularity for a long time among the native Russian words expressing the same concept.

Dictionary of Dahl, released in the middle of the XIX century, points to the French origin of the word "alarmist". Translated from French, the noun "alarme" means "anxiety, commotion," and having the same form of the verb is translated as "alarm, scare, announce alarm, give an alarm."

In English, the word "alarm" has even more meanings than in French: it denotes both abstract nouns "danger", "alarm", "confusion", and quite specific objects: alarm clock, bell, alarm device. Similar words have this word in German. Exclamation "Alarm aus!" In German means "End!".

Thus, an alarmist is someone who beats an alarm, who is nervous and makes others nervous.

Interpretation of the word

In modern literature, it is sometimes pointed out that the word "alarmist" is of English origin. With this you can only agree in part. It is important to understand that in Russian this token has several meanings.

It is likely that originally this word served only to designate a panic-stricken person, and in this sense the word "alarmist" came to us from the French language. In the early twentieth century. The word has developed another meaning - "a person who is engaged in the dissemination of anxious and false rumors." That is, an alarmist is not only someone who is very upset because of any events, but also spreads deliberately false information in order to intimidate others.

Currently, the noun "alarmist" is used not only in colloquial speech. Lexma entered the language of science, and also actively meets in publicism.

Journalists and environmentalists are often called an alarmist of a representative of a public organization or party who advocates the preservation of the environment, a radical change in the social system, the adoption of laws that inhibit population growth or prohibit the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture.

An alarmist is someone who constantly reminds that human civilization is not ideal, that the modern world is in a state of deep crisis that affects all spheres of life and social relations.

Synonyms for the word "alarmist"

Strangely enough, but in the modern Russian language there are practically no primordial words expressing the concepts embodied in the word "alarmist". The synonym of this lexeme among other words of Slavic origin is not so easy to pick up. The nearest "cousin" of the alarmist is the alarmist, but this lexeme, as is not difficult to guess, has a foreign etymology. Does this mean that Russian people are by nature not very ardent alarmists? Probably, it's still not the case.

In the dictionary of Dalya we meet as many as six synonyms of the said word, and they all have a Russian origin: unsettled, noisy, anxious, unstoppable, nabatchik, restless. So two hundred years ago they called people inclined to excessive feelings and nervousness.

In modern explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language, there are none of these synonyms, and nowadays the name of the kitchen utensils is the noise of the kitchen utensils - the kind of ladle that is a holey spoon, used most often to remove foams during cooking.

Interpretation of the word "alarmism" in modern Russian

alarm ”, называющее процесс – алармизм. Literally a few years ago in our language appeared another lexeme with the root " alarm ", which calls the process - alarmism. What it is, you can understand when referring to scientific vocabulary.

In psychology, alarmism is understood as the naming of an anxiety state caused by external factors. This concept is not strictly a medical term, rather, this word denotes one of the aspects of the depressive syndrome.

In the economy, alarmism refers to a system of views, from which the whole world stands on the road to imminent disappearance due to the fact that the population is growing, resources are being exhausted, and the ecology is invariably deteriorating.

Is it worth communicating with an alarmist?

Increased anxiety is characteristic of people with any level of education, from any social environment and with any social status. However, uncontrolled emotional excitability is most often suffered by introverts and people with a mobile vulnerable mentality.

Consciously or not, each alarmist is an energetic vampire who, of course, genuinely worries about an event, but sharing his thoughts and feelings with you, he wants in his heart that his anxiety be passed on to you in all its completeness.

Seeing that the story of the end of the world caused the desired reaction, the alarmist will try to keep in touch with you, but at the same time, communication with such a person will always begin with something neural, only later turning to the discussion of the system crisis and the world apocalypse. If you feel that after a date with such a person you have lost spirits and unconscious anxiety, you should think about continuing such communication.