awe
/ɔː/ noun, verb, proper noun
- noun A feeling of fear and reverence.
- noun A feeling of amazement.
- noun (archaic) Power to inspire awe.
- verb (transitive) To inspire fear and reverence in.
- verb (transitive) To control by inspiring dread.
- noun (obsolete) A bucket (blade) attached to water wheels.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A short river between Loch Awe and Loch Etive, Argyll and Bute council area, Scotland; in full, the River Awe.
- proper noun (rail transport) The station code of AsiaWorld–Expo in Hong Kong.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English aw, awe, agh, awȝe, borrowed from Old Norse agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, dread”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- (“to be upset, afraid”). Displaced native Middle English eye, eyȝe, ayȝe, eȝȝe, from Old English ege, æge (“fear, terror, dread”), from the same Proto-Germanic root.
Borrowed from French auve.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Dread; great fear mingled with respect. [Obs. or Obsolescent]
- noun The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence.
- verb To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread.
Etymology [OE. a, aghe, fr. Icel. agi; akin to AS. ege, , Goth. agis, Dan. ave chastisement, fear, Gr. ail. Ugly.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “awe”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details