Gorgonizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cause a person to be transfixed with horror or fear, rendering them unable to move or act
2. to have a petrifying or paralyzing effect on someone or something
3. to instill a sense of dread so intense that the affected individual feels immobilized in response

Etymology: Gorgon was a monstrous figure in Greek myth whose gaze turned onlookers to stone, and "gorgonize" takes that petrifying power and applies it to the mind: to freeze someone with fear. The verb is simply the noun "gorgon" with the suffix "-ize," which English took from Greek through Late Latin and Middle French and attached to nouns and adjectives to form verbs of making or becoming something. The "-ize" ending has an unusually long road into English. It descends from a Greek verb-forming suffix, passed into Late Latin as "-izare," then into Old French, and reached Middle English around the time the language was absorbing large amounts of learned vocabulary. Speakers have been coining new "-ize" verbs freely ever since, so "gorgonize" belongs to a large family of words built on the same pattern.