Origination of "worry wort"

Posted by Kitty on March 25, 2003

In Reply to: Origination of "worry wort" posted by kitty on March 25, 2003

: : thank you for the reply. what about how the saying came to be?

: I just found an archived discussion on this saying. I am including a link.

I also found this in some article/essay by Robert Sherrill on www.urbanhiker.net, entitled "What's the Good Word":

*snip*
Worrywart. Now seems to mean a chronic worrier. Wrong. Worrywart was one of the characters in "Out Our Way," drawn by one of my favorite cartoonists, the late J.R. Williams. Worrywart worried *other* people and made them worry about him. He was a mess; spastic, as med students used to say. *He* didn't worry. So, that little brother who pesters you all the time is the worrywart.
*end snip*