Fyrhtan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An Old English verb meaning to be afraid of something or to feel fear and dread toward a person or thing
2. A verb from Old English expressing the act of being frightened or feeling fear in the face of danger
3. Old English for to fear, meaning to be seized by fright or to stand in awe of someone or something

Etymology: Fyrhtan is an Old English verb meaning "to fear" or "to be afraid," and it is the ancestor of the modern English "frighten" only in a roundabout way. It comes from the noun "fyrhto" (fear), which goes back to a Germanic root shared with the Old English "fær" (sudden danger) and the Old Saxon and Old High German words for fear and terror. The original sense was therefore close to the modern "fear" rather than the causative sense of making someone afraid. Its surviving descendant is the verb "fright," which Middle English speakers used both intransitively, to be afraid, and transitively, to scare someone. The later verb "frighten" was formed in Middle English from "fright" with the causative suffix "-en," so it means "to make afraid." Old English speakers did not have this causative sense in the verb itself, so the modern meaning of "frighten" is a later development built on the older root.