worrywart

Meaning

Noun

• A person who worries excessively, especially about unimportant matters.

Origin

• Attested 1956, I. BELKNAP Human Problems of State Mental Hospitals x. 177 In cartoon Out Our Way by J. R. Williams, there is a character by that name. Earlier examples from newspapers of the 1930s and 1940s.
• Presumably related to earlier worryguts.
• From apparently chosen for alliteration.