Some people can be especially neurotic or nervous by nature,living out their lives in a state of excessive worry. Theseobsessive concerns may either be global or amazingly minor inscope. Such a person is often said to be a worry wart, alsorendered as worrywart or worry-wart in some literaryreferences. A worry wart’s fears are generally viewed by othersas irrational or completely out of proportion to the actualsituation.

有些人可能天生就特別神經質或者緊張，成天生活在極度憂慮中。這些過度的擔憂可能是宏觀的大事也可能是芝麻小事。這種極度憂慮的人就被稱為是“憂天的豈人”(拼寫為worrywart、worrywart或worry-wart都可以)。他們這些人的擔憂通常會被別人看作自尋煩惱或者跟現實情況完全不符。

A worry wart in an office environment, for example, may spend most of his or her time frettingover getting laid off or fired. While the actual chances of a worry wart actually becomingunemployed may be remote at best, a neurotic employee often seeks out advice from co-workerson how to handle his or her inevitable dismissal. Others may worry excessively about jobperformance or customer complaints or minor conflicts with their superiors.

比如說，辦公室里杞人憂天的那些人大部分時間可能都在擔心會被裁員或解雇。雖然他們真正被裁的幾率很小，但是這類有點神經質的員工經常會找同事求教怎樣才能避免被裁員。還有一些人可能會對工作表現、客戶投訴或者與上司之間的小矛盾而過度擔憂。