Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To have to do with or relate to.
  • intransitive verb To be of interest or importance to.
  • intransitive verb To engage the attention of; involve.
  • intransitive verb To cause anxiety or uneasiness in.
  • intransitive verb To be of importance.
  • noun A matter that relates to or affects one.
  • noun Regard for or interest in someone or something.
  • noun A troubled or anxious state of mind.
  • noun A business establishment or enterprise; a firm.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To relate or pertain to; have an intimate relation to or connection with.
  • To affect the interest of; have interest for; be of importance to.
  • To interest; busy; occupy; engage: used reflexively or in the passive voice: as, to concern one's self in the affairs of others; I was not concerned in that transaction.
  • To disturb; make uneasy or anxious; cause disquiet to; trouble: generally in the past participle: as, to be deeply concerned about the safety of a friend.
  • To confuse with drink; slightly intoxicate: in the past participle.
  • Synonyms To interest, touch, affect.
  • noun That which relates or pertains to one; matter of concernment; business; affair.
  • noun Interest; matter of importance; that which affects one's welfare or happiness.
  • noun Solicitous regard; solicitude; anxiety; agitation or uneasiness of mind; disturbed state of feeling; trouble.
  • noun An establishment or firm for the transaction of business; a manufacturing or commercial establishment; a business house.
  • noun A material object, especially one that is complicated or large; a contrivance: with a touch of depreciation.
  • noun Synonyms Solicitude, etc. (see care); Concern at, about, for (see unconcerned); carefulness, thoughtfulness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun That which relates or belongs to one; business; affair.
  • noun That which affects the welfare or happiness; interest; moment.
  • noun Interest in, or care for, any person or thing; regard; solicitude; anxiety.
  • noun (Com.) Persons connected in business; a firm and its business.
  • noun all connected with a particular affair or business.
  • transitive verb To relate or belong to; to have reference to or connection with; to affect the interest of; to be of importance to.
  • transitive verb To engage by feeling or sentiment; to interest.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To be of importance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun That which affects one's welfare or happiness
  • noun The expression of solicitude, anxiety, or compassion toward a thing or person.
  • noun A business, firm or enterprise; a company.
  • verb transitive To be of importance to.
  • verb transitive To make somebody worried.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness
  • verb be on the mind of
  • noun a feeling of sympathy for someone or something
  • noun an anxious feeling
  • noun something that interests you because it is important or affects you
  • verb be relevant to
  • noun a commercial or industrial enterprise and the people who constitute it

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English concernen, from Old French concerner, from Medieval Latin concernere, from Late Latin, to mingle together : Latin com-, com- + Latin cernere, to sift; see krei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin concernere ("to distinguish, to have respect to"), combined form of con- + cernō ("distinguish")

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