timorous

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English

Etymology

From Late Middle English timorous ((adjective) fearful, frightened; causing fear, dreadful, terrible; deferential, modest; (noun) timid people collectively), borrowed from Old French temoros, temorous, from Medieval Latin timōrōsus, from timōr- (the stem of Latin timor (dread, fear)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; prone to’). Timor is derived from timeō (to be afraid of, fear) (further origin uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *temH- (dark)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns). Doublet of timoroso.

Pronunciation

Adjective

timorous (comparative more timorous, superlative most timorous)

  1. Tending to be easily frightened; shy, timid.
    Synonym: (Scotland, dated) timorsome
    Antonyms: see Thesaurus:brave
  2. (archaic) Feeling fear; afraid, fearful, frightened.
    Synonyms: apprehensive; see also Thesaurus:afraid
    Antonyms: brave, daredevil, dauntless, temerarious, untimorous; see also Thesaurus:unafraid
    • 1534 (date written; published 1553), Thomas More, “A Dyalogue of Comforte agaynste Tribulacyon, . XVI. Of Hym that were Moued to Kyl Himself by Illusion of the Dyuel, which He Rekened for a Reuelation.”, in Wyllyam Rastell , editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, , London: Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, pages 1195–1196:
      He marketh well mennes complexions within thẽ , health, or ſicknes, good humours or badde, by which they be light hearted or lumpiſh, ſtrong hearted, or faynt & fieble of ſpirite, bolde and hardy, or timorous and fearefull of courage.
    • 1616, William Browne, “The Fifth Song”, in Britannia’s Pastorals. The Second Booke, London: Thomas Snodham for George Norton, , →OCLC, page 120:
      Men call her Athliot: vvho cannot be / More vvretched made by infelicitie, / Vnleſſe ſhe here had an immortall breath / Or liuing thus, liu'd timerous of death.
    • a. 1631 (date written), J Donne, “Sonnet VIII”, in Poems, with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: M F for Iohn Marriot, , published 1633, →OCLC, page 37:
      VVeaker I am, vvoe is mee, and vvorſe then you, / You have not ſinn'd, nor need be timorous,
    • 1750 November 10 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. . Tuesday, October 30. 1750.”, in The Rambler, volume III, Edinburgh: Sands, Murray, and Cochran]; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, , published 1750, →OCLC, page 101:
      Remember, my ſon, that human life is the journey of a day. VVe approach them vvith ſcruple and heſitation; vve enter them, but enter timorous and trembling; and alvvays hope to paſs through them vvithout loſing the road of virtue, vvhich vve for a vvhile keep in our ſight, and to vvhich vve propoſe to return.
    • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 72.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, , →OCLC, pages 357–358:
      e had none of his old cronies to "tackle," and was rather timorous on venturing on Joe;
  3. (UK, dialectal)
    1. Fastidious in dressing.
    2. Fired with intense feeling; passionate.
    3. Hard to manage; difficult, tiresome.
  4. (obsolete)
    1. Causing dread or fear; dreadful, terrible.
      • 1632, William Lithgow, “The Sixth Part”, in The Totall Discourse of the Rare Adventures and Painefull Peregrinations of Long Nineteene Yeares Travayles from Scotland to the Most Famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia and Affrica, Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, publishers to the University , published 1906, →OCLC, pages 233–234:
        Well, having past halfe way downewards, wee came to the most scurrile and timorous Discent of the whole passage, where with much difficuty, I set safe the foure Germanes in our narrow Rode hewen out of the craggy Hill;
    2. Humble, modest; also, showing reverence; respectful, reverent, reverential.

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ timorǒus, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ timorous, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; timorous, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams