Tremour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An involuntary quivering or shaking movement of the body or a limb ; a minor earth movement, often a small quake felt beneath the ground ; a sudden wave of excitement or feeling passing through a person
2. A rapid, uncontrolled trembling of part of the body ; a faint seismic shake of the ground ; a thrill or flutter of strong emotion running through someone
3. Involuntary shuddering of the limbs or muscles ; a slight earthquake that shakes the surface of the earth ; a tingling surge of feeling that passes through a person

Etymology: "Tremour" is an obsolete spelling of "tremor", and the two forms share one history. Middle English used the spelling "tremour" for a sense now lost: "fright", not bodily shaking. The word reached English from Anglo-Norman "tremour" and Old French "tremor", both drawn from Latin "tremor", which meant a trembling or quivering, often born of fear. The fear-based sense came first, so a trembling body was once understood mainly as a symptom of being frightened. The Latin root "tremere", to tremble, also gave English the word "tremble" and, through other channels, related terms of shaking and quaking. Over time the Middle English sense of "fright" dropped away, and the word narrowed to the physical shaking that the current meaning describes.

Synonyms: tremor, shiver, quiver, quaver, shudder