fear

English

/fɪə/, /fɪəɹ/

noun
Definitions
  • (uncountable) A strong, uncontrollable, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
  • (countable) A phobia, a sense of fear induced by something or someone.
  • (uncountable) Terrified veneration or reverence, particularly towards God, gods, or sovereigns.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English feer inherited from Old English fǣr (sudden attack) inherited from Proto-Germanic *fērō (danger) derived from Proto-Indo-European *per- (risk, bring forth, fare, through, try, go, traverse, across, carry forth, bring forward, produce, procure, forth, before, attempt, over, go over, pass through, go through, beyond, research, bear, forward, penetrate, put across, sell, lead across, front, formerly, dare, throughout, ferry, cross, transfer, pierce, strike, a going, peril, first, beat, out, passage, of, bring carry over, pass, next, in front) inherited from Middle English feren (travel, fear, go) inherited from Old English fǣran (raven, frighten) root from Proto-Indo-European *per- (risk, bring forth, fare, through, try, go, traverse, across, carry forth, bring forward, produce, procure, forth, before, attempt, over, go over, pass through, go through, beyond, research, bear, forward, penetrate, put across, sell, lead across, front, formerly, dare, throughout, ferry, cross, transfer, pierce, strike, a going, peril, first, beat, out, passage, of, bring carry over, pass, next, in front).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*per-

Gloss

risk, bring forth, fare, through, try, go, traverse, across, carry forth, bring forward, produce, procure, forth, before, attempt, over, go over, pass through, go through, beyond, research, bear, forward, penetrate, put across, sell, lead across, front, formerly, dare, throughout, ferry, cross, transfer, pierce, strike, a going, peril, first, beat, out, passage, of, bring carry over, pass, next, in front

Concept
Semantic Field

Miscellaneous function words

Ontological Category

Other

Kanji

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms