Wordwyrt

perturb

/pəˈtɜːb/pur-TURB
/pɚˈtɝb/pur-TURB

Meaningto stir up thoroughly

Common meaning: to make anxious

‘through’ + ‘a crowd, uproar’ → perturb

Journey through time

  1. Latinturba; turbō‘a crowd, uproar’
  2. Frenchperturber
  3. Middle Englishperturbensource
  4. Englishperturb‘to make anxious’ · today

per- also in: percentperceptperfidyperfumeperjury

turb also in: turbidturbulentdisturbtrouble

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Latin turba; turbō ‘a crowd, uproar; to stir up’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Lewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), entry turba, p. 1916 · dictionary scan

Roots

Related words

disturbtroubleturbidturbulent

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