Eerier

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Inspiring a feeling of unease or fear due to its strange or haunting characteristics
2. Producing a creepy sensation that makes one feel uneasy or fearful
3. Evoking a mysterious or ghostly atmosphere that disturbs peace of mind

Etymology: "Eerier" is the comparative of "eerie," so it simply means "more eerie." The base word began in Middle English as "eri," meaning "fearful," which came from Old English "earg," meaning "cowardly" or "fearful." The sense of being cowardly is the older one, and the fear was once a plain human quality rather than a feeling a place or sound gives you. The Old English root is shared with Scots "ergh" and "argh," and "argh" is a doublet of "eerie," meaning the two words descend from the same source but reached modern English by different routes. The Old English "earg" traces back to a Proto-Germanic form, "*argaz," which also gave rise to the "cowardly" sense that the word once carried.

Synonyms: spookier, more frightening, more unsettling

Antonyms: calmer, smoother