Obsessed

How to spell obsessed

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce obsessed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does obsessed mean?

1. adjectivePreoccupied with someone or something to an excessive, all-consuming degree.
2. verbPast tense of obsess: to have preoccupied or troubled someone continually.

Obsessed in a sentence

• adjective

  He became completely obsessed with checking the stock prices every hour.

• verb

  The unpaid invoice obsessed him for the entire weekend.

• adjective

  She was obsessed with keeping the kitchen spotless before guests arrived.

• verb

  Worry about the deadline obsessed her until the report was finally sent.

Where does obsessed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb obsidere, which literally meant 'to sit down before' a place, and so came to mean 'to besiege' or 'to occupy with troops'. Its past participle was obsessus, built from ob- 'against, before' and sedere 'to sit', the same root that gives us 'sedentary' and 'session'. When the word reached English in the sixteenth century, the besieging was understood spiritually: a person was 'obsessed' when an evil spirit besieged or harassed them from outside, as opposed to being 'possessed' from within. Over time the supernatural sense faded and the modern psychological meaning took over, describing a mind besieged by a single fixed thought. The double s comes straight from that Latin obsessus, and the silent siege is a useful way to remember it: the thought lays siege to your mind and will not move.

How the word is built

• ob- (against, before)
• sess (from sedere: to sit)
• -ed (past participle / adjective suffix)