Afrighten

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic verb meaning to fill someone with fear or alarm, causing them to be startled or terrified
2. To cause a person to become suddenly afraid, as an old-fashioned way of saying one has been frightened
3. Making someone feel fear or dread, a rare and dated term for thoroughly scaring or alarming another

Etymology: "Afrighten" is an old English verb built from the prefix "a-" and "frighten." The prefix comes from Old English "ā-", a intensifying or sometimes perfective element that appears in many older verbs, such as "aflame" and "aslant," and it was used to give a verb a sense of completion or thorough action. "Frighten" itself is a much older word than it looks: it developed from the Old English "frighten," meaning "to frighten, terrify," which in turn grew from "fright," a noun meaning sudden fear. The compound was used in Middle English and early modern English, where it carried the same sense as "frighten" but with extra emphasis, meaning to make someone thoroughly or very afraid. It appears in writings from the later medieval period onward, though it was never a common word and was largely displaced by the simpler "frighten." Today it survives mainly in older literature and deliberate archaism.

Synonyms: frighten, scare, terrify

Antonyms: reassure, comfort