Obsession

How to spell obsession

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce obsession

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does obsession mean?

1. nounA persistent thought, idea, or desire that dominates a person's mind and is hard to set aside.

Obsession in a sentence

• His obsession with tidiness meant every drawer had to be perfectly arranged.

• Her obsession with the missing files kept her at the office until midnight.

Where does obsession come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin obsessio, a noun built on the verb obsidere, which literally meant 'to sit down before' a place and so came to mean 'to besiege' or 'to occupy with troops'. The parts break down as ob-, meaning 'against' or 'before', and sedere, meaning 'to sit', the same root that sits inside 'sediment' and 'session'. When the word entered English in the early 1500s it carried a darker sense: an evil spirit was thought to besiege or lay siege to a person from the outside, in contrast to full possession from within. Over time the military and demonic imagery faded, and obsession came to describe a thought or desire that lays siege to the mind and refuses to lift. The double s preserves that buried sedere root, and remembering the idea of a mind under siege helps fix the spelling.

How the word is built

• ob- (against, before)
• sess (from sedere: to sit)
• -ion (noun suffix)