hidden pixel

Fear Definition

fear

See also fear-

Contents

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English feer, fere, fer, from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *fēran (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to attempt, try, research, risk”). Cognate with Dutch gevaar (“danger, risk, peril”), German Gefahr (“danger, risk, hazard”), Swedish fara (“danger, risk, peril”), Latin perīculum (“danger, risk, trial”).

Noun

fear (countable and uncountable; plural fears)

  1. (uncountable) A strong, uncontrollable, unpleasant emotion caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
    He was struck by fear on seeing the snake.
  2. (countable) A phobia, a sense of fear induced by something or someone.
    Not everybody has the same fears.
    I have a fear of ants.
  3. (uncountable) Extreme veneration or awe, as toward a supreme being or deity.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
uncountable: emotion caused by actual or perceived danger or threat
a phobia; sense of fear induced by something or someone
extreme veneration or awe
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

From Middle English feren, from Old English fǣran (“to frighten, raven”), from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”). See above.

Verb

fear (third-person singular simple present fears, present participle fearing, simple past and past participle feared)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To cause fear to; to frighten.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:
      ‘Be God,’ sayde Sir Gawayne, ‘his grevys me but lytyll; yet shalt thou nat feare me for all thy grete wordis.
  2. (transitive) To feel fear about (something).
    I fear the worst will happen.
  3. (transitive) To venerate; to feel awe towards.
    People who fear God can be found in Christian churches.
  4. (transitive) Regret
    I fear [regret that] I have bad news for you: your husband has died.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
feel fear about (something)
venerate
  • Kurdish:
    Kurmanji: tirsîn (ku)
    Sorani: ترسین (ku) (tirseen)
  • Malay: takut (ms)
  • Portuguese: temer (pt)

Etymology 3

From Middle English fere, feore, from Old English fēre (“able to go, fit for service”), from Proto-Germanic *fōriz, *fōrjaz (“passable”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to put across, ferry”). Cognate with Scots fere, feir (“well, active, sound”), Middle High German gevüere (“able, capable, fit, serviceable”), Swedish för (“capable, able, stout”), Icelandic færr (“able”). Related to fare.

Alternative forms

Adjective

fear (comparative more fear, superlative most fear)

  1. (dialectal) Able; capable; stout; strong; sound.
    hale and fear

Statistics

Anagrams

Irish

Pronunciation

Etymology

From Old Irish fer, from Proto-Celtic *wiros, from Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós. Cognate with Welsh gŵr, Latin vir, Old English wer.

Noun

fear m.

  1. man
  2. husband, male spouse

Declension

First declension

Bare forms:

Case Singular Plural
Nominative fear fir
Vocative a fhir a fheara
Genitive fir fear
Dative fear fir

Forms with the definite article:

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an fear na fir
Genitive an fhir na bhfear
Dative leis an bhfear

don fhear

 leis na fir

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
fear fhear bhfear
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Scots

Noun

fear (plural fears)

  1. fear

Verb

tae fear (third-person singular simple present fears, present participle fearin, simple past feart, past participle feart)

  1. to fear
  2. to frighten, scare

Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

Noun

fear m. (genitive and plural fir)

  1. man
  2. husband, male spouse

Declension

First declension; forms with the definite article:

Case Singular Plural
Nominative am fear na fir
Vocative fhir fhir
Genitive an fir nam fear/fir
Dative leis an fhear leis na fir

Derived terms

See also

Pronoun

fear (genitive fir)

  1. somebody, something, one

Usage notes

Derived terms

West Frisian

Noun

fear c. (pl. fearren)

  1. ferry
  2. spring (mechanical device)

 

The above information uses material from Wiktionary and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Wed Apr 11 14:30:45 2012.
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

More Definition Results for "Fear"
[Hide]▼
'Fear' Images
[Hide]▲