Grisan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic verb meaning to shiver, shudder, or tremble violently from fear or horror
2. An obsolete Old English verb for trembling or shuddering in dread at something frightening
3. Old word describing the act of shivering or quaking with terror or revulsion

Etymology: Old English "grisan" meant "to shudder" or "to shiver with fear," and it is the ancestor of the modern English verb "to grize," which survives mainly in the older sense of "to shudder" and in the form "grise," along with the adjective "grisly." The root is Germanic, and its exact older form is less certain: it is usually linked to the same Proto-Germanic base as "grim," and the sense of dread that runs through both words is consistent with that connection. The word is well attested in Old English, which means it was in use long before the modern word "grisly" appeared. Its descendants split in English: the verb faded from everyday speech, while the adjective "grisly" (from the same root) kept the sense of something horrifying or gruesome. A reader meeting "grisly" today is therefore encountering the same ancient shudder, now attached to the object that causes it rather than to the person feeling it.