The Words for Fear in Ancient Greek from Etymological Perspective

Bilyana Mihaylova

According to psychologists, fear is one of the basic human emotions. It is crucial for survival and
it would appear to be the most universal of all human emotions. Fear is induced by perceived
danger or threat and causes physical changes, including nervous and endocrine changes, and
change in behaviour (fleeing, hiding, freezing). The specific biochemical reaction to fear, known
as fight-or-flight response, evolved as a survival mechanism, which enables people and
mammals to react quickly to a life-threatening situation. It is triggered by the sympathetic
nervous system before one consciously make any decision on how to act. In extreme cases of
fear, it can be a freeze response or paralysis.
However, the words denoting ‘fear’ in the history of Ancient Greek have never been
systematically studied from the etymological point of view1. The etymological research in this
field is important in order to understand the essence of the emotion itself, for the study of the
history of emotions and the history of thinking.
The semantic development of words denoting fear is often transparent. It is well-known that the
words meaning ‘fear, fright’ in human languages commonly originate from lexemes with primary
semantics connected to the physical actions or expressions of this emotion as ‘go away, run’,
‘tremble, shake; be cold, chilly shiver’, ‘freeze, be stiff, be paralysed; catch, grasp’, ‘be struck’
(Buck 1949: 1153). Тhis type of semantic change could be analysed within the conception of the
complex situation as a semantic basis for the creation of lexemes (Havlová 1999) and can also be
described by the following tendency which “subsumes many changes from concrete > abstract,
most especially from physical to mental”: “Meanings based in the external described situation >
meanings based in the internal (evaluative/perceptual/cognitive) described situation” (Traugott &
Dasher 2012: 94-95).
The purpose of this article is to present the patterns of semantic development attested in Ancient
Greek. The etymology of 24 word families meaning ‘fear’ and occurring in Ancient Greek has
been examined and classified according to their original semantics in 13 groups belonging to 6
semantic fields.

I. Actions in response to fear

1. ‘to run, flight’

1.1. φέβομαι ‘be put to flight, flee in terror’ is attested only in Homer and his imitators
φόβος ‘panic flight’ (Hom.); ‘personified, as son of Ares’, ‘panic fear’
According to Jasanoff the transitive active causative φοβέω ‘put to flight (Hom), terrify, alarm
(Hom+)’ is a back-formation from φοβέομαι ‘to be put to flight (Hom), be seized with fear, be
affrighted (Hom+)’ (Jasanoff 2003: 134).
ἀμφιφοβέομαι ‘tremble’; ‘quake all round’
The lexemes go back to IE root *bhegw-, cognate with OLith. bė́ gti,bė́ gmi, Lith. bė́ gu ‘escape’,
Latv. bêgt,bę̂gu,‘run (away), to flee’, OCS бѣгати, бѣжати, бѣжѫ ‘run, to flee’.

1
Robert Zaborowski (2002) has registered all the words related to the idea of fear in the Homeric epics, and has
listed forty-three different terms deriving from twenty-two distinct roots, but did not examine their origin.
This word family is a rare and interesting case as in Homeric epic, we can observe the semantic
development in progress: to run away > to fear. While the verbs mean ‘to be put to flight, flee in
terror’, according to Harkemanne2 the substantive φόβος already means ‘fear’ in Homer’s epic.
Semantic development: flee > fear

1.2. φύζα means flight, panic flight from battle, but also panic (DELG 1192). In Il. 9.2 φύζα
φόβου κρυόεντος ἑταίρη it is conceived as a divine power (Chantraine 1922: 72). The use of the
lexeme in the formula φύζαν ἐνόρσας as direct object of the verb ἐνόρνυμι provides evidence in
favour of the appurtenance of φύζα to the semantic field of emotions. The derived adjectives also
belong to the domain of fear: φυζακινός (Il. 13.102 φυζακινῇς ἐλάφοισιν), φυζαλέος (AP)
‘fugitive, fearful, shy’. Φύζα is connected to the verb φεύγω ‘flee’ and goes back to the IE
*bʰewg- ‘to flee’, cf. Lat. fugiō ‘flee, escape’.
Semantic development: run away > fear

1.3. σέβομαι ‘to feel awe or fear before God, especially when about to do something disgraceful;
to feel shame, religious awe; σέβας ‘respect’. The causative σοβέω ‘scare away, drive away,
move rapidly or violently’ preserves the old meaning of the root (DELG 993).
These words are cognate with Indo-Irinian tyáǰas ‘abandonment, difficulty, danger’, Skt. tyájas,
‘abandonment, difficulty, danger’, tyájati ‘leave, abandon’, Av. iθiiejah ‘abandonment, difficulty,
danger’ < IE*tyegʷ- ‘avoid, yield to’. Chantraine (DELG 993) remarks that “La diversité
remarquable des emplois se réduit à la signification unique « se retirer » ou « faire se retirer »,
confirmée par l’étymologie, cf. skr. tyájati « quitter, abandonner » de *tyegw-.”
Semantic development: leave, abandon, avoid > fear

1.4 ἀτύζομαι ‘to be distraught from fear, bewildered, flee bewildered’, in Hom., Lyr., Trag. only
pres. and aor. part. Pass
This lexeme is most probably connected to Hitt. ḫatuki- ‘terrible’ < *h2tug- and to Skt. tujyáte
‘flee frightened’ (LIV 2: 286). The Sanskrit verb belongs to the semantically and syntactically
difficult root tuj-, which denoted vehement motion or putting in panic (flight) (Kulikov 2011: 81-
2, n. 4).
Semantic development: flee > fear

2. crouch from fear

πτήσσω; ἐπιπτήσσω ‘crouch for fear’; καταπτήσσω ‘crouch, cower, esp. from fear‘
πτώσσω ‘shrink from’; πτωσκάζω ‘crouch or cower for fear’
πτόα ‘abject fear, terror‘; πτοέω ‘to terrify, to scare’.
These words are usually related by etymologists to πίπτω ‘fall’, πέτομαι ‘fly’ which presumably
belong to one and the same family, cf. Skt. pátati covering a large semantic field ‘to fly, to rush,
to fall’ (cf. DELG 906)3.
The presence of a laryngeal in the IE root is very uncertain, as it is not attested unequivocally in
many of the related forms: OIr. én ‘bird’ (< *petno-), Lat. penna ‘feather’ (< *petna), Gk. πτερόν,

2
Apud Konstan 2006: 316, note 12 ( Harkemanne, J. 1967. “ΦΟΒΟΣ dans la poésie homérique: Étude sémantique.”
In Recherches de philologie et de linguistique, Vol. 1, ed. M. Hofinger et al., 47–94).
3
LIV2 distinguishes two IE roots *peth1- ‘fall’ (LIV2 477-478) and *peth2- ‘to fly’ (LIV2 479, contra EWAai s.v.
pat-1). In Addenda und Corrigenda zu LIV 2 the two roots are merged in *pet-.
Arm. t‘ert’ ‘feather’ (< *ptero-), Ved. pátati ‘fly, fall’ (< *pet-) (see for example Anttila 1969: 85,
151). In this case, the Greek forms pointing to a seṭ-root like are more likely to be inner
innovations, and the unusual structure *pteh2-k- ( > πτήσσω) with two voiceless plosives in the
onset, Schwebeablaut with T and not with a sonorant should not be assigned to the IE period.
Hackstein derives πτήσσω, πτώσσω from an IE root *pyeh2k-, and compares them to Toch. B
/pyak-/, A pyāk ‘(nieder-, ein-)schlagen; knock down, strike’, Gk. πταίω ‘cause to stumble or fall;
stumble, fall’, Lith. pjáuti ‘cut’, Latv. pļaũt ‘maw, harvest’ < *peh1w- or *pyeh2w-, Lat. paviō
‘beat, strike’. According to Hackstein the IE root was originally transitive as in Tocharian, but
developed an intransitive meaning in Greek probably passing through a stage ‘[den Körper]
niederschlagen‘ > ‘sich rückartig niederdrücken’ (Hackstein 1992).
However, the meaning of the derivatives from the IE root *pyeh2- are obviously related to the
idea of ‘hit, punching, chopping’ and therefore ‘falling, falling down’. The semantics of the
Tocharian verbs (see Adams 2013: 439-440 ) is ‘strike (downwards), batter, beat (of a drum),
penetrate (as a result of downward blow)’, i.e. the semantic core is related to ‘hit, stroke’, but not
to ‘movement4.
Contrary to the formations descending from IE *pyeh2- some of the uses of the verbs πτήσσω,
πτώσσω in the most ancient Greek texts (The Iliad and the Odyssey) are indicative of an original
semantics related to motion and therefore most probably originate from Greek derivatives from
the root *pet- ‘to move in a horizontal or vertical direction’:

OD.8.190 βόμβησεν δὲ λίθος: κατὰ δ' ἔπτηξαν ποτὶ γαίῃ5

OD.8.190 and the stone whizzed, and they ducked to the ground

IL.20.425 ἐγγὺς ἀνὴρ ὃς ἐμόν γε μάλιστ' ἐσεμάσσατο θυμόν,

IL.20.425 Here is the man who beyond all others has troubled my anger,
IL.20.426 ὅς μοι ἑταῖρον ἔπεφνε τετιμένον: οὐδ' ἄρ' ἔτι δὴν
IL.20.426 who slaughtered my beloved companion. Let us no longer
IL.20.427 ἀλλήλους πτώσσοιμεν ἀνὰ πτολέμοιο γεφύρας.
IL.20.427 shrink away from each other along the edgeworks of battle.

IL.21.12 ὡς δ' ὅθ' ὑπὸ ῥιπῆς πυρὸς ἀκρίδες ἠερέθονται

IL.21.12 As before the blast of a fire the locusts escaping
IL.21.13 φευγέμεναι ποταμόνδε: τὸ δὲ φλέγει ἀκάματον πῦρ
IL.21.13 into a river swarm in air, and the fire unwearied
IL.21.14 ὄρμενον ἐξαίφνης, ταὶ δὲ πτώσσουσι καθ' ὕδωρ:
IL.21.14 blazes from a sudden start, and the locusts huddle in water;

OD.22.303 ἐξ ὀρέων ἐλθόντες ἐπ' ὀρνίθεσσι θόρωσι:

OD.22.303 who come from the mountains and pounce on birds

4
Besides, Adams considers more plausible the equation of the Tocharian verbs with Alb. pjek ‘meat, encounter,
përpjek ‘hit, knock, strike’ and Germ. *fehtan ‘fight’ under a lemma *pyek- ‘strike’ or *pek- (which would fit
Albanian and Germanic data just as well as *pyek-) with “breaking” to *pi̯ āk-.
5
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and the English translation are cited from Kahane and Mueller’s The Chicago Homer
available online at http://homer.library.northwestern.edu/.
OD.22.304 ταὶ μέν τ' ἐν πεδίῳ νέφεα πτώσσουσαι ἵενται,
OD.22.304 that speed on the plain, shrinking from the clouds,

OD.17.226 ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ οὖν δὴ ἔργα κάκ' ἔμμαθεν, οὐκ ἐθελήσει

OD.17.226 But, since he's no doubt learned evil deeds, he wouldn't want
OD.17.227 ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι, ἀλλὰ πτώσσων κατὰ δῆμον
OD.17.227 to go about his work, but he'd rather go cringing
OD.17.228 βούλεται αἰτίζων βόσκειν ἣν γαστέρ' ἄναλτον.
OD.17.228 through the kingdom and beg to feed his insatiable belly.

OD.18.362 ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ οὖν δὴ ἔργα κάκ' ἔμμαθες, οὐκ ἐθελήσεις

OD.18.362 But since you've by now learned evil deeds, you won't want
OD.18.363 ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι, ἀλλὰ πτώσσειν κατὰ δῆμον
OD.18.363 to go about your work, but would prefer to beg
OD.18.364 βούλεαι, ὄφρ' ἄν ἔχῃς βόσκειν σὴν γαστέρ' ἄναλτον.
OD.18.364 throughout the kingdom, so you can feed your insatiable belly.

IL.8.135 δεινὴ δὲ φλὸξ ὦρτο θεείου καιομένοιο,

IL.8.135 and a ghastly blaze of flaming sulphur shot up, and the horses
IL.8.136 τὼ δ' ἵππω δείσαντε καταπτήτην ὑπ' ὄχεσφι:
IL.8.136 terrified both cringed away against the chariot.

Semantic development: move in a horizontal or vertical direction > crouch, cower > fear

II. Actions or phenomena causing fear

3. to strike, to hit
3.1. πλήσσω present used by Hom. and Att. writers only in compd. ἐκπλ- (cf. πλήγνυμι); Att.
πλήττω, ‘hit, strike’; pass. ‘to be struck, aghast, confused; καταπλήσσω , Att. καταπλήττω ‘strike
down’; pass. ‘to be panic-stricken, astounded’, καταπληγία ‘panic fear’.
Etymology: πλήσσω < *pl̥h₂k- from IE *pleh₂g-/-k- (k is secondary in Gk, cf. πληγή ‘blow,
stroke’), cognate with Latin plangō ‘strike, beat; bewail, lament’, plāga ‘plague, stroke, wound’;
OCS плакати ‘cry, weep < beating the chest when mourning’, Lith. plàkti ‘to beat, chastise’,
Goth faiflokun ‘ἐκόπτοντο, bewail’;
Semantic development: hit > scare > be scared

3.2. στυγέω ‘to hate, fear, abhor’, see below.

4. (looking) cruel, grim, fierce

ταρβέω ‘be frightened, alarmed, to fear, dread’; ‘stand in awe of, revere’
τάρβος , εος, τό ‘fear’
ὑποταρβέω ‘be somewhat afraid of, shrink before’
The lexemes are most probably related to Skt. tárjati ‘threaten, revile’, Lat. torvus ‘grim, fierce’,
MW tarfu ‘disturb, trouble, scare’, Hitt. tarkuwant- ‘looking angrily’ < IE *tergw- (GEW 856-7,
DELG 1094, De Vaan 2009: 625).
Semantic development: fierce appearance, threatening appearance > frightful appearance >
fear

III. Physical symptoms

5. to tremble, quiver, shudder, bristle

5.1. τρέμω ‘tremble, quake, quiver; tremble with fear; tremble at, fear’
τρόμος ‘trembling, tremor, shudder, then fear, terror’
τρομέω ‘tremble, quake, quiver, esp. from fear’; c. acc. ‘tremble before or at a person, stand in
awe of’
The words derived from IE *trem- ‘tremble, hake’ and are cognate with Lat. tremō ‘tremble’,
Lith. trem͂ti, tremiù ‘banish, drive away, trample’, trìmti ‘tremble violently’, Latv. trem͂t ‘trample,
drive away’; Toch. A tärm- ‘be furious (< tremble with anger)’, B tremi pl. tant. ‘anger’, Alb.
tremb ‘scare, startle’ (DELG 1131-2, GED 1502-3, Adams 339, De Vaan 628, LIV2 648-9).
The alleged original semantics is proved by the numerous instances in the Iliad where τρόμος
appears in combination with γυῖα ‘limbs, members’.
Semantic development: tremble > be afraid

5.2. τρέω ‘turn to flee, flee in terror, be afraid, fear’

This verb issued from IE *tres- and is cognate with Skt. trásati, caus. trāsayati ‘tremble, be
afraid’, Av. θrāoŋhaiia- ‘scare’, tərəsa- ‘be afraid’, Lat. terrēre < * PIt. *tros-eje- ‘scare’, Lith.
trė̃sti, tresiù, trėsiaū ‘run’, -ìsti, -įstū ‘unruhig werden’, OCS. трѧсти, трѧсѫ.
The stems *trem- and *tres- are probably variants of one and the same root *ter-.
Semantic development: tremble > be afraid, flee from fear

5.3. ῥιγέω ‘shudder or bristle with fear/horror’

The verb derived from ῥῖγος ‘frost, cold’ from IE *sriHg-os ‘cold’, exact correspondence to Lat.
frīgus ‘cold’.
Semantic development: feel cold > shiver > fear

5.4. φρίσσω ‘be rough or uneven on the surface, bristle; hill, shiver, shudder’ is without certain
etymology.
Semantic development: shiver, bristle > be afraid

6. defecation, flatulence
In circumstances of extreme fear a number of physiological changes occur which lead to
increased bowel function and to relaxation of elimination control.

6.1. βδύλλω ‘be in deadly fear of’, derived from βδέω ‘break wind’ from IE *pesd- ‘fart’ (cf.
Lat. pēdō, Lith. bezdėti, Latv. bezdêt, PSlav. *pьzděti (Russ. bzdetʹ, SCr. bàzdeti, Cz. bzdít, Pol.
bździć).

6.2. ὀρρωδέω, Ion. ἀρρ- ‘dread, shrink from’

The assumption that ὀρρωδέω derives from ὄρρος ‘(vulgar) butt, ass’ through *ὀρρώδης ‘afraid,
anxious’ like Fr. couard, It. codardo ‘coward’ from Vulg. Lat. coda ‘tail’ does not seem
semantically convincing because the original meaning of Fr. couard, etc. was probably ‘with
tucked tail’, that signals fear in some animals which could not be the case. Taillardat (DELG
1422) defends the old interpretation as τὸν ὄρρον ἱδροῦν ‘shit in the pants’; the α- would be due
to Ionic dissimilation of ο-ω. According to him ὀρρωδέω is an expressive term for saying ‘be
afraid’, a denominative from a compound ὀρρ-ώδης meaning ὃς τοῦ ὄρρου ὄζει (κακῶς).

6.3. ἐγχέζω ‘incacare’, Ar.Ra.479: with acc., ‘to be in a horrid fright at’.

IV. Psychical manifestations

7.1. δέος ‘fear, alarm

δείδω (old perfect *δε-δϜοια) ‘fear; be alarmed, anxious’
δεῖμα ‘fear’
Δεῖμος, the Greek god of Terror, twin brother of Φόβος
The members of this family are the most frequent and common terms for ‘fear, be afraid’,
replaced in the further history of Greek by the family of φέβομαι.
These lexemes are cognate with Arm. erkn ‘fear, labour pains’, Av. duuaēθā ‘threat’, Toch. AB
wi- ‘to frighten’ and with s-extension Skt. dvéṣṭi, Av. daibiš- ‘to hate’ (see GEW 354-5, DELG
257, GED 308, Martyrosyan 2009: 268, Cheung 2006: 82, Adams 2013: 652). Perhaps also Lat.
dīrus ‘awful, dreadful’ < *dwey-ro-/*dweys-o- also belongs here, but it should be explained as a
dialectal form since IE dw- > Lat. b- (see De Vaan 171). According to LIV we are dealing with
two separate roots *dwey- ‘to fear’ and *dweys- ‘to hate’ (130-1). After Benveniste (1954: 254-
255) it is considered that these words should be derived from the root of the numeral two
*d(u)wo- as ‘to doubt’, cf. Fr. douter ‘to doubt’ and redouter ‘to fear’. Martirosyan (loc. cit.)
notes that numerous Armenian formations meaning ‘to doubt’ derive from erku ‘two’.
Being an old perfect its initial semantics is ‘be divided, be surrounded by hesitation, doubts’. It
would be useful to verify if Benveniste’s hypothesis is supported by the diachronic semantic
analysis of δέος. According to DELG (1094) δείδω applies to a conscious fear (DELG 1094).
The traditional view, dating back to Antiquity, distinguishes δέος, whose semantics includes
anticipation and consideration, from φόβος, which is a sudden shock, irrational fear6. Konstan
(2006: 154) cites J. de Romilly’s opinion: “Opposed to emotional and irrational phobos, which
suddenly seizes body and soul, is δέος, an intellectual kind of apprehensiveness which involves
calculation relative to the future and measures that are taken as a result.”7. Sandrine Coin-
Longeray also affirms that this opposition is valid for the classical and post-classical prose, but
not for Homeric epic where the basic term for fear is δέος without any intellectual sense (Coin-
Longeray 2015). Chantraine points out that in Homer the term often expresses fear in battle and
has a very concrete and physical meaning. Coin-Longeray (loc. cit.) analyses the uses of the
words for fear in the choral poetry and finds out that the uses of the noun δέος and related
adjectives are characterized by a more general semantics and are different from those of the verb,
which means anticipating fear. It seems that this specific sense of “conscious fear” of the family
of δέος is newer and appears in the later history of Greek when φόβος already prevails over δέος.

7.2. ὄκνος ‘shrinking, hesitation; alarm, fear’

ὀκνέω ‘shrink from doing, scruple, hesitate to do a thing’

6
See on this Konstan (2006: 153-154), Coin-Longeray (2015: 41-42).
7
J. de Romilly. Histoire et raison chez Thucydide. 1956. apud Konstan 2006.
The word appears 3 times in the Iliad, twice in combination with δέος in the formula δέος ἴσχει
ἀκήριον οὔτε τις ὄκνος.
Starting from the point of view that Hitt. hatta- (< *h3ek-to-) is a nominal stem meaning ‘clever,
wise’, G. Rikov relates the Hittite form to Goth. aha ‘mind, intelligence’, OHG. ahta ‘intention,
consideration, notice’, OE. eaht ‘deliberation, council’, etc. and also to Greek substantivized
adjective in *-no- ὄκνος (Rikov 1981: 81-82, see also IEW 774 ).
Semantic development: hesitate > feel anxious > fear

8. Loss of self-possession
8.1. ἀλαλυκτάζω, ἀλαλύκτημαι ‘to be afraid’
Derived from ἀλύω ‘to be distraught, be beside oneself from pain, anguish, etc.; rarely connected
to positive emotions (Od. 18, 333); être hors de soi’, be beside oneself by pain, anguish’, medical
terms ἀλυσμός, ἄλυσις, ἀλύκη ‘distress, anguish, fear’.
The use of the hapax ἀλαλύκτημαι in Homer clearly points to a basic meaning ‘loss of control of
oneself’ in the context of the description of fear:

IL.10.93 αἰνῶς γὰρ Δαναῶν περιδείδια, οὐδέ μοι ἦτορ

IL.10.93 Terribly I am in dread for the Danaans, nor does my pulse beat
IL.10.94 ἔμπεδον, ἀλλ' ἀλαλύκτημαι, κραδίη δέ μοι ἔξω
IL.10.94 steadily, but I go distracted, and my heart is pounding

To the best of my knowledge, there are two possible etymological explanations of ἀλύω:

а. ἀλύω could be explained an u-derivative to ἀλέομαι ‘to wander, to avoid, shun, flee’ < IE
*h2lew- ‘escape, ward off; keep away’ (DELG 66, GED 76, LIV 2: 278).

b. Another possibility (cited by Puhvel 1991: 50) is to relate it to Hitt. halluwai ‘violence, brawl,
quarrel’, Luw. halwamman ‘excitement’, etc. Puhvel rejects it, because the Hittite word means
‘fighting fury’ and not a loss of self-possession. However, it would be more convincing to depart
from a primary meaning ‘excitement’, which would easily develop into ‘fury’, on the one hand,
and ‘loss of self-control’, on the other.
Semantic development: loss of control, be beside oneself > fear

V. Religious fear

Respect for the gods is in fact a fear of them, “une crainte respectueuse” in the words of
Benveniste (1969: 203), cf. also the use of φοβέομαι in this sense: φοβεῖσθαι τοὺς ἄνω θεούς
Pl.Lg. 927b. Benveniste explains the verb ἅζομαι in the following way: “Le verbe indique le
respect, éprouvé devant un dieu ou un personnage divin ; mais un respect négatif, qui consiste à
s’abstenir de porter atteinte” (Benveniste loc. cit).

9.1. σέβομαι see above.

9.2. αἰδέομαι, and poet. αἴδομαι ‘be ashamed’, ‘fear, feel awe’
αἰδώς ‘reverence, awe, respect’
The traditional derivation of αἰδέομαι and αἰδώς from a root *h2eysd- (Skt. īḍé ‘praise, honour,
Goth. aistan ʻἐντρέπεσθαιʼ) is rightly doubted by the etymological dictionaries since we should
expect Gk. +αἴζ. Kölligan proposes a new etymology deriving them from a root * h2eyd- ‘reveal,
expose’ to which belong also Arm. adj. yayt (-i, -icʻ) ‘obvious, clear, manifest’, Lith. áiškus
‘clear’, aikštẽ ‘meadow, clearing’ and OCS istъ ‘true, genuine, that one’. He presumes a semantic
development ‘exposure’ > ‘shame, shyness’ > ‘reverence’ (Kölligan 2015).

9.3. ἅζομαι only pres. and impf.; act. only in part. ‘stand in awe of, esp. gods and one's parents’.
The lexeme goes back to IE *Hyeh₂ǵ- ‘to revere’, cf. ἅγιος ‘devoted to gods’; cognate with
Sanskrit yájati ‘to revere’.

9.4. ὀπίζομαι ‘regard with awe and dread; feel awe or reverence’ after. Hom. ‘care for’, Lacon.
ὀπίδδομαι
The verb is derived from ὄπις ‘revenge, punishment, retribution of the gods’ from IE *h3ekw-
‘see’. According to GED this implies an older meaning ‘sight, look, glance’, whence
‘animadversion, punishment’ on the one hand, ‘consideration, respect, reverence’ on the other.

VI. Mixing emotions and feelings

11. Surprise&Fear

11.1. θάμβος ‘amazement’; in objective sense, ‘object of wonder’ or pl. ‘terrors’

In Homer’s Iliad 4 instances: 1 neutral ‘astonishment’, 1 negative ‘surprise > terror’, 2 negative
‘terror’.
θαμβέω ‘be astounded’, with acc. ‘be astonished at’
τέθηπα, pf. with pres. sense, intr. ‘be astonished, astounded, amazed’; with acc. ‘wonder, be
amazed at’
Camille Semenzato analyses the uses of θάμβος and θαμβέω from the 8th to the 3rd century and
concludes that these terms are ambiguous, denoting both fear and amazement. It happens that
θάμβος only means amazement, but never presents the meaning of fright alone. As Semenzato
remarks, in the heroic world, fear and astonishment do not represent two different experiences to
one another (Semenzato 2015: 25-39). In fact, surprise is an emotion that can have any valence:
neutral/moderate, pleasant, unpleasant, positive, or negative. It is quickly followed by another
emotion: different development of the emotion can occur depending on the type of situation. If
the unexpected situation is dangerous, surprise can transform in fear. The startle response is the
extreme form of surprise experienced by animals and humans as the result of an unexpected
event. This reaction is related but different from surprise and is closely related to fear too.
The etymology of θάμβος is uncertain (see GEW, DELG, GED). The perfect τέθηπα is irregular
since one would expect τέθηφα. Semerényi (1954) supposes a connection to Goth. dumbs ‘dumb’
from IE root *dhembh-. A connection to IE * dhebh- ‘to harm’, nasalized form * dhembh-, cf. Skt.
dambhá- ‘fraud, deception’ would be convincing from the semantic point of view, especially if
we suppose an original meaning ‘hit’. Then the semantic shift would be hit > startle, amaze >
frighten (cf. the semantic development of ἐκπλήσσω), however we still have serious phonetic
difficulties.
12. Hate&Fear

12.1. στυγέω ‘to hate, fear, abhor’8.

The etymology of this word is uncertain. It probably derives from the enlarged variant *stew-g-
of the IE root *stew- ‘to hit, push’ (IEW 1033 sqq., LIV2: 602), cognate with Norw. stauka
‘push, hurt, stutter’, MDu. stūken ‘push, stack, astonish’.

13. To be distressed > to fear

13.1. δυσοίζω ‘to be distressed’, ‘fear, tremble at’, med. ‘fear’.
Most probably it is derived from the adjective δύσοικτος, which comes either from οἶκτος or
from *οἰκτός to οἴζω going back to the interj. οι (GED 360, 1056).

The results of the lexicological and the etymological analysis of the words denoting fear in
Ancient Greek are summarized in the following table. In addition, words with similar semantic
development from other Indo-European languages are also presented9.

Original meaning Greek word Semantic parallels in other

IE languages
Actions in run away, φοβέομαι
response to flight φύζα
fear σέβομαι, σοβέω
ἀτύζομαι
crouch from πτήσσω, πτώσσω, πτόα
fear
Actions or to hit, to πλήσσω Lat. paveō10; Occ. еnglasiar,
phenomena strike στυγέω еsglasiar, esglaja; ?Skt. bhī,
causing fear bháyate, OCS бояти сѧ
cruel, fierce ταρβέω Fr. effaroucher, Roum.
încrâncena
Physical tremble, τρόμος Lat. terreō; tremō; trepidus
symptoms quiver τρέω Skt. trásati, Av. θrā̊ŋh-;
ῥιγέω Rom. înfiora
φρίσσω
βδύλλω Fr. trouille, vesse, pétoche,
defecation,
ὀρρωδέω Port. cagaço, Cat. basarda
flatulence
ἐγχέζω
Psychical to doubt, to δέος; δείδω Skt. śaṅk- ‘to be in doubt, to
manifestations hesitate ὄκνος hesitate; to fear’, śaṅka ‘fear,
doubt’; Fr. redouter from
douter ‘to doubt’

8
For example, in the Iliad there are 7 instances: 5 instances meaning ‘to be afraid’, 1 instance meaning ‘to fear and
abhor’ and 1 instance meaning ‘to hate’.
9
Unfortunately, the etymologies of these words cannot be examined in detail here because of the limited space.
10
On the Latin and Romance examples see Mihaylova 2018.
 loss of self- ἀλαλύκτημαι
possession
Religious fear reverence αἰδέομαι Lat. vereor
and ἅζομαι
respect ὀπίζομαι
Mixing hate/disgust στυγέω
emotions and surprise θάμβος, θαμβέω,
feelings τέθηπα
distress δυσοίζω Nw. dial. rogg, rug

Conclusions:
1. The contextual analysis of the uses of the words denoting fear shows that in Ancient Greek
most lexemes do not just indicate the emotion of fear but also contain a semantic component
linked to a physical symptom or reaction. A significant and notable example in this respect is the
case of φόβος, φέβομαι, φοβέομαι. In Homer’s language, we observe the process of semantic
transition: φοβέομαι (going back to IE root *bhegw- ‘run’) is still meaning ‘be put to flight’,
while in later Greek its basic meaning is ‘be seized with fear, be affrighted’ and these words
supersede the basic lexemes for ‘fear’ represented in Homer by δέος, δείδω.
2. The etymological analysis outlines six large groups in terms of semantic development based
mainly on metonymy which, despite of the dominance given to metaphors in cognitive
semantics, has been seen by some authors as “cornerstone of human cognition and ordinary
language use” (Nerlich & Clarke 1999: 197):
 actions in response to fear;
 actions or phenomena causing fear;
 physical symptoms;
 psychic manifestations;
 religious fear;
 mixing emotions and feelings (some lexemes are semantically and/or etymologically
related to several other emotions).
3. Although fear is considered to be a basic and universal human emotion, it appears that in
Greek there are no words with a original meaning ‘fear’.

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