Quivery

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈkwɪvəɹi/

Definitions

1. Shaking or trembling with slight, rapid movements, often due to weakness, cold, or strong emotion
2. Characterized by a slight, rapid shaking movement often caused by fear, excitement, or physical instability
3. Exhibiting small, rapid tremors that may arise from emotional states or physical conditions such as cold

Etymology: "Quivery" is simply "quiver" plus the suffix "-y", meaning "characterised by" or "full of" the quality the base word names. The adjective means trembling, often with excitement, which is the sense the phrase "quivery with anticipation" preserves. The base word "quiver" has a longer history than its suffix suggests. It comes from Old English "cwifer", which is a close cousin of the modern verb "quiver" in its sense of trembling, and its distant roots reach back to Proto-Germanic forms that were tied to the idea of shaking or moving rapidly. The suffix "-y" traces back to Old English "-ig" and "-iġ", which turned nouns and verbs into adjectives describing a state or a full quantity of something. Over the centuries this suffix attached itself to countless words, from "stony" to "dusty". Because the adjective is formed by attaching "-y" to an ordinary English word, its meaning is transparent, and it has stayed close to its physical sense of tremulous motion, now applied to emotions and anticipation.

Synonyms: tremulous, shaky, shivery

Antonyms: steady, stable