The broad, mild feeling of attention and engagement drawn to something.
The broad, mild feeling of attention and engagement drawn to something — the baseline of the interest family.
The broadest and mildest member: the general state of having one's attention drawn to and held by something. Less specific than curiosity (interest aimed at finding out) and far weaker than fascination (absorbing captivation); unlike intrigue it needs no mysterious trigger. The neutral baseline the others intensify. Both a momentary state (“lost interest”) and a standing pursuit (“one of her interests”). It lacks the forward-looking, outcome-directed quality of hope or anticipation.
Attention, engagement, or appreciative regard drawn to something.
The emotional sense is comparatively late, attested by 1771.
A charge paid for the use of borrowed money (an interest rate).
This sense dates to the 1520s, originally distinguished from illegal usury.
A legal share, claim, or right in something (“a controlling interest”).
The earliest English sense, from the mid-15c.
From Latin interest “it is of importance, it makes a difference” (literally “to be between”). Entered English mid-15c. meaning “legal claim; concern; advantage.”
A shift from legal/financial “concern, stake” to emotional “attention”: the legal sense is mid-15c., the money-lending sense 1520s, the “personal consideration” sense 1620s, and the emotional “feeling that something concerns one” only by 1771. No reliable recent-generation shift.