the.com/bundle of nerves
A person wound so tight their anxiety has its own anxiety.
means Someone in a state of extreme nervousness or agitation, so on edge they seem to be made entirely of jittery, exposed nerve endings.
from A straightforward 19th-century image: nerves, the body's wiring for sensation and fear, pictured as literal strands gathered into a bundle. The phrase leans on the older idea of nerves as the seat of courage or its absence — to 'lose your nerve' or have 'nerves of steel' — so a person reduced to just a bundle of them is stripped of composure, all raw wiring and no insulation.
- literal origin
- nerves actually run in bundled fibers called fascicles
- first recorded use
- popped up in english idiom by the 1800s
- physiology link
- describes real adrenaline flooding before stress or fear
- common trigger
- weddings, exams, and waiting rooms rank highest