Don't Let Your Emotions Run Your Life
A self-help workbook by Scott E. Spradlin, MA. Explores Dialectical Behavior Therapy for emotion management.
The Emotion Thesaurus
Love Words
The word love comes from the Indo-European leubh-. It is the root of the archaic English word lief, meaning dear, and the Latin word libido meaning "strong desire", indicating a connection between love and attraction. Other related words from the same root include praise and belief, which has an associated sense of "being pleased with."
Joy Words
Some philosophers argue over whether or not joy is an emotion or an enduring sense of hopefulness and security. The word comes to English via Latin, from the same word from which we get our modern word gaudy. In Middle English it referred to an ornamental rosary bead. With respect to emotion, joy describes a state of great pleasure, happiness, or delight.
Interest Words
Interest comes from the Latin verb interesse which means to "be between." Metaphorically the word means "to be of concern," "be important," or "matter." From the fourteenth century on English adopted the word, eventually transforming it to interest. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that it took its main sense of "curiosity."
Anger Words
Anger may have come to Old English from Old Norse angr which may have been related to sorrow, but certainly once carried the meaning of pain, trouble, or affliction, much like a sore or inflammation. Anger is certainly an emotion of displeasure.
Sadness Words
The word sad has its roots in the Indio-European words that culminated in our English words satisfy and saturate and originally meant "to have had enough." Evenually sad came to mean weary and then unhappy.
Fear Words
Fear has its roots in the Old English faer and the Middle English fer, and has various connotations of dread, anxiety, terror, agitation, and alarm caused by the anticipation of danger.
Shame Words
Shame is a strong and painful form of guilt or sense of unworthiness, for doing wrong. The word, which comes from the Old and Middle English sceamu, is also directed to others, as in "to put someone to shame."
A self-help workbook by Scott E. Spradlin, MA. Explores Dialectical Behavior Therapy for emotion management.
The Emotion Thesaurus
Love Words
The word love comes from the Indo-European leubh-. It is the root of the archaic English word lief, meaning dear, and the Latin word libido meaning "strong desire", indicating a connection between love and attraction. Other related words from the same root include praise and belief, which has an associated sense of "being pleased with."
- love
- adoration
- affection
- arousal
- attraction
- caring
- charmed
- compassion
- desire
- echantment
- fondness
- infatuation
- kindness
- liking
- longing
- lust
- passion
- sentimentality
- sympathy
- tenderness
- warmth
- other...
Joy Words
Some philosophers argue over whether or not joy is an emotion or an enduring sense of hopefulness and security. The word comes to English via Latin, from the same word from which we get our modern word gaudy. In Middle English it referred to an ornamental rosary bead. With respect to emotion, joy describes a state of great pleasure, happiness, or delight.
- joy
- amusement
- bliss
- cheerfulness
- contentment
- delight
- eagerness
- enjoyment
- enthrallment
- enthusiasment
- euphoria
- excitement
- exhilaration
- gladness
- glee
- happiness
- hope
- jubilation
- optimism
- pride
- rapture
- other...
Interest Words
Interest comes from the Latin verb interesse which means to "be between." Metaphorically the word means "to be of concern," "be important," or "matter." From the fourteenth century on English adopted the word, eventually transforming it to interest. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that it took its main sense of "curiosity."
- absorbed
- alluring
- attraction
- curiosity
- engaged
- engrossed
- enthrallment
- entice
- entranced
- fascination
- inquisitive
- interest
- intrusive
- probing
- studious
- temptation
- other...
Anger Words
Anger may have come to Old English from Old Norse angr which may have been related to sorrow, but certainly once carried the meaning of pain, trouble, or affliction, much like a sore or inflammation. Anger is certainly an emotion of displeasure.
- anger
- aggravation
- agitation
- annoyance
- bitterness
- contempt
- cruelty
- destructiveness
- disgust
- dislike
- envy
- exasperation
- frustration
- grouchiness
- grumpiness
- hate
- hostility
- irritation
- jealousy
- outrage
- rage
- resentment
- wrath
- scorn
- other...
Sadness Words
The word sad has its roots in the Indio-European words that culminated in our English words satisfy and saturate and originally meant "to have had enough." Evenually sad came to mean weary and then unhappy.
- sadness
- agony
- alienation
- anguish
- crushed
- defeat
- dejection
- despair
- disappointment
- discontent
- dismay
- displeasure
- distraught
- gloom
- grief
- hopeless
- hurt
- inecurity
- loneliness
- misery
- suffering
- other...
Fear Words
Fear has its roots in the Old English faer and the Middle English fer, and has various connotations of dread, anxiety, terror, agitation, and alarm caused by the anticipation of danger.
- fear
- anxiety
- apprehension
- distress
- dread
- edginess
- fright
- horror
- hysteria
- jumpiness
- nervousness
- overwhelmed
- panic
- shock
- tenseness
- terror
- uneasiness
- worry
- other...
Shame Words
Shame is a strong and painful form of guilt or sense of unworthiness, for doing wrong. The word, which comes from the Old and Middle English sceamu, is also directed to others, as in "to put someone to shame."
- shame
- contrition
- culpability
- discomposure
- embarrassment
- guilt
- humilation
- insulted
- invalidation
- mortification
- regret
- remorse
- other...
