Dredfulnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Archaic term for the quality of being frightful, causing deep fear or awe in those who face it
2. An older word for the state of being terrifying, horrible, or inspiring intense dread
3. Obsolete noun describing the condition of something that provokes fear, horror, or overwhelming awe

Etymology: Before it meant "terrible," "dreadful" meant "full of awe." The adjective came into Middle English from "dread," which then meant reverent fear, especially the fear owed to God or a great power, and goes back to Old English "ondrǣdan," "to fear." Medieval writers used the adjective for things that commanded reverence, such as a sovereign or the divine, and the negative sense of "frightful" grew out of that older meaning over the following centuries. The spelling "dredfulnesse" is an early form of "dreadfulness," built from "dread," the suffix "-ful" ("full of"), and the noun ending "-ness" (a state or quality). Each part is native English, so the word is a plain compound with no foreign borrowing. Its spelling varied widely in Middle English, and the form shown here reflects a period when the vowel in "dread" and the spelling conventions had not yet settled.