Dredefulnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for the state of being filled with fear, awe, or dreadful apprehension
2. Obsolete noun meaning fearfulness, or a condition of being deeply afraid and anxious
3. A Middle English word for the quality of inspiring or feeling fear and awe before something terrible

Etymology: "Dredefulnesse" is a Middle English noun, the "-nesse" ending being the Middle English form of the suffix "-ness", which turns an adjective into a noun for a state or quality. Attached to "dredeful", meaning full of dread or fearful, it yields "a state of dread." The adjective is itself built from "dreed" (dread) plus the suffix "-ful", so the word stacks two suffixes onto an older root. The root "dread" has a surprising history of its own: in Old English "ondrǣdan" meant to fear or to be in awe of someone, and its sense of reverence before God or a superior is the older meaning that the later sense of terror grew out of. A word once tied to respect for authority came to name a feeling of horror. Because the word is a formation from native English parts rather than a borrowing, its history is simply that of its components, and it was used in Middle English writing before the modern spelling of "dread" and "dreadfulness" settled in.