Petrify

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ/

Definitions

1. To change living tissue into a stony substance through mineralization ; to cause someone to become so frightened that they cannot move or act
2. To transform plants or animals into a fossil-like stone state ; to make a person so scared that they are frozen with fear
3. To convert organic matter into a rock-like form over time ; to instill such intense fear in someone that they become paralyzed

Etymology: Ancient Greeks had a word for rock, "pétra", and the Romans borrowed it as "petra" before it passed into medieval Latin as the base of "petrificare", meaning to turn into rock. The second half of that verb is the Latin "facere", "to make or do", the same root that gives English "fact" and "factory". So at its core, "petrify" is a rock-making verb, built from a stone and a making. French took the Latin coinage as "pétrifier", and English borrowed it from there. The word's first sense was literal and geological: to turn plant or animal matter into stone, the process by which fossils form. That literal meaning survives in the mineralization sense still used in science. The figurative sense, to frighten someone so badly they cannot move, grew out of the image of a person turned to stone, the same image that gives the mythological Medusa her power over the living.

Synonyms: terrify, frighten, shock, horrify, startle

Antonyms: calm, comfort, reassure, soothe, encourage