means Feeling strained, anxious, or under mental or physical pressure, as if pulled tighter than you can comfortably stretch.

from From the verb 'stress,' which traces back through Old French 'estresse' (narrowness, oppression) to Latin 'strictus,' the past participle of 'stringere,' meaning 'to draw tight' or 'bind' — the same root that gives us 'strict,' 'strain,' and 'constrict.' The technical sense of physical pressure on materials came first; the emotional sense of being mentally squeezed is a more modern extension, popularized in the 20th century by stress research.