apprehensive
ap-rih-HEN-sivadjMeaning worried that something bad may happen
Memory hook a-pre-HEN-sive: a worried HEN. The hen spots a fox sniffing around the coop and cannot sleep all night, worrying about what he might do. She is apprehensive.
Jonah was apprehensive about his first day at the new school.
In context The sailors grew apprehensive as the sky darkened and the wind picked up, and the captain ordered everyone to tie down the sails before the storm hit.
Similar uneasy, anxious, worried, nervous
Opposite calm, confident, carefree
From Latin apprehendere, “to seize, grasp” (ad + prehendere); to apprehend a danger is to grasp in your mind that it may come.