fright
/fɹaɪt/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms frights frighting frighted
- noun A state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.
- noun Someone strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion.
- verb (archaic, transitive) To frighten.
- adjective (rare) frightened; afraid; affright
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English fright, furht, from Old English fryhtu, fyrhto (“fright, fear, dread, trembling, horrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *furhtį̄ (“fear”), from Proto-Indo-European *pr̥k- (“to fear”).
Cognate with Scots fricht (“fright”), Old Frisian fruchte (“fright”), Low German frucht (“fright”), Middle Dutch vrucht, German Furcht (“fear, fright”), Danish frygt (“fear”), Swedish fruktan (“fear, fright, dread”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌷𐍄𐌴𐌹 (faurhtei, “fear, horror, fright”). Compare possibly Albanian frikë (“fear, fright, dread, danger”).
Probably short for affright, from Middle English afright, from Old English āfyrht, past participle of āfyrhtan (“to make afraid; terrify”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.
- noun Anything strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion. [Colloq.]
- verb To alarm suddenly; to shock by causing sudden fear; to terrify; to scare.
Etymology [OE. frigt, freyht, AS. fyrhto, fyrhtu; akin to OS. forhta, OHG. forhta, forahta, G. furcht, Dan. frygt, Sw. fruktan, Goth. faúrhtei fear, faúrhts timid.]
Etymology [OE. frigten to fear, frighten, AS. fyrhtan to frighten, forhtian to fear; akin to OS. forhtian, OHG. furihten, forahtan, G. fürchten, Sw. frukta, Dan. frygte, Goth. faurhtjan. See Fright, n., and cf. Frighten.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fright”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details