Do you know a person who is very concerned about the political, economic or religious situation in the country? So worried that he cannot resist the temptation to tell you about his concern? A person who watches the next news release with glowing eyes, so that after a week he will tell about what he saw to all his friends? If such a person is familiar to you, then you know, the alarmist is in front of you. The meaning of the word, its origin and history are discussed below.
Who are alarmists?
Unfortunately, following simple logic, we must admit that in the modern world a person is not only a herald of technological progress, but also his 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 relate to such information quite calmly, while others take everything to heart, for a long time they can’t forget what they saw and switch to something more positive and, no less important, more vital. A person prone to be overly concerned about external events is sometimes called an alarmist. This word has an interesting and unusual story.
The origin of the word "alarmist"
When a new word came into the Russian language (and this apparently happened a few centuries ago), he had to gain popularity for a long time among the native Russian words expressing the same concept.
Dahl's dictionary, released in the mid-19th century, points to the French origin of the word “alarmist”. Translated from French, the noun “alarme” means “alarm, commotion,” and a verb of the same form translates as “alarms, scares, announces an alarm, gives an alarm.”
In English, the word “alarm” has even more meanings than in French: it means both abstract nouns “danger”, “alarm”, “confusion”, and quite specific objects: an alarm clock, a bell, an alarm device. This word has similar meanings in German. The cry of “Alarm aus!” in German means "Hang up!".
Thus, the alarmist is the one who sounds the alarm, who is nervous himself and makes others nervous.
Word interpretation
In modern literature, it is sometimes indicated that the word "alarmist" is of English origin. This can only partially be agreed. It is important to understand that in Russian this token has several meanings.
It is likely that initially this word served only to refer to a man-alarmist, and in this sense the word “alarmist” came to us from the French language. At the beginning of the twentieth century. the word has developed another meaning - "a person who is engaged in the dissemination of alarming and false rumors." That is, an alarmist is not only one who is very worried about some events, but also disseminates deliberately false information in order to intimidate others.
Currently, the noun “alarmist” is used not only in colloquial speech. The lexeme has entered the language of science, and is also actively found in journalism.
Journalists and environmentalists often call the alarmist a representative of a public organization or party who advocates for the preservation of the environment, a radical change in the social system, the adoption of laws that restrain population growth or prohibit the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture.
An alarmist is one who constantly reminds us that human civilization is not perfect, that the modern world is in a state of deep crisis, which affects all spheres of life and social relations.
Synonyms of the word "alarmist"
Oddly enough, in modern Russian there are practically no primordial words expressing the concepts inherent in the word “alarmist”. A synonym for this token among other words of Slavic origin is not so easy to pick up. The alarmist’s closest “cousin” is the word alarmist, but this lexeme, as you might guess, has a foreign etymology. Does this mean that Russian people are not very ardent alarmists by nature? This is probably not the case.
In the Dahl dictionary, we meet as many as six synonyms of the specified word, and all of them are of Russian origin: restless, skimmer, anxiety, spolokhin, typist, restless. So two hundred years ago they called people prone to excessive emotions and nervousness.
In modern explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language, all of the synonyms listed are absent, and now a kitchen utensil is called a slotted spoon - a kind of ladle, which is a holey spoon used most often to remove foam during cooking.
Interpretation of the word “alarmism” in modern Russian
Just a few years ago, another token with the root “ alarm ” appeared in our language, which calls the process - alarmism. What is this, you can understand when referring to scientific vocabulary.
In psychology, alarmism is understood as naming an anxiety state caused by external factors. This concept is not a strictly medical term; rather, this word denotes one aspect of depressive syndrome.
In economics, the system of views is called alarmism, on the basis of which the whole world is on the path to inevitable extinction due to the fact that the population is growing, resources are exhausted, and the environment is constantly deteriorating.
Should I talk with an alarmist?
Increased anxiety is characteristic of people with any level of education, from any social environment and with any social position. However, uncontrolled emotional excitability often affects introverts and people with mobile, vulnerable psyche.
Consciously or not, every alarmist is an energy vampire who, of course, sincerely worries about this or that event, but, sharing with you his thoughts and feelings, he wants in his soul that his anxiety be conveyed to you in full.
Seeing that the story of the demise of the world caused the desired reaction, the alarmist will seek to maintain constant contact with you, but at the same time, communication with such a person will always begin with something neural, only later turning to discussing the crisis of the system and the world apocalypse. If you feel that after meeting with such a person, your mood has deteriorated and unconscious anxiety has appeared, you should think about continuing such communication.