solicitude

Noun

solicitude (usually uncountable, plural solicitudes)

1. (usually) The state of being solicitous; uneasiness of mind occasioned by fear of evil or desire for good; anxiety.
   • The familiarity of Sydney Smith’s manner does not consist merely in his style ; indeed, the terseness and brilliancy of his diction, though not at all artificial in appearance, could not have been attained without labor and solicitude ;—but it is the result of the blunt, fearless, severe, yet...1848, Edwin Percy Whipple, “Sydney Smith”, in Essays and Reviews, volume I, New-York: D. Appleton & Company, page 135
2. (usually) Special or pronounced concern or attention.
   • Also the triuialle of the vertues theologicalle and quadriuialle of the cardinalle vertues, to comprehende the knowlege of whom oure insufficience sufficethe not, withowte the sollicitude of writers scholde transfude to vs the memory of thynges of antiquite.1387, Ranulf Higden, anonymous translator, Polychronicon, translation of original in Medieval Latin, lib. I, page 5
   • Will any fair man say that I do not in this paragraph inculcate the duty of love and reverence for his Majesty, by stating, not merely my own ideas of his royal virtues, of his wisdom, and paternal solicitude for the happiness of his people, but the opinion and feeling of the illustrious personage...1810, Cobbett's Political Register - Volume 17, page 379
3. (usually) A cause of anxiety or concern.
   • M. Todgers looked a little worn by cares of gravy and other such solicitudes arising out of her establishment, but displayed her usual earnestness and warmth of manner.1844, Charles Dickens, chapter XXXII, in Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, page 380