Origin: 1375–1425; late Middle English concernen (< Middle French concerner) < Medieval Latin concernere to relate to, distinguish (Late Latin: to mix for sifting), equivalent to Latin con-con- + cernere to sift
Related forms
o·ver·con·cern, noun, verb (used with object)
pre·con·cern, noun, verb (used with object)
self-con·cern, noun
Synonyms 1. touch, involve. 3. disturb. 5. burden, responsibility. Concern,care,worry connote an uneasy and burdened state of mind. Concern implies an anxious sense of interest in something: concern over a friend's misfortune. Care suggests a heaviness of spirit caused by dread, or by the constant pressure of burdensome demands: Poverty weighs a person down with care. Worry is an active state of agitated uneasiness and restless apprehension: He was distracted by worry over the stock market. 8. firm, house.
mid-15c., from M.L. concernere "concern, touch, belong to," figurative use of L.L. concernere "to sift, mix, as in a sieve," from L. com- "with" + cernere "to sift," hence "perceive, comprehend" (see crisis). Apparently the sense of the prefix shifted to intensive in M.L.