consternation

Etymology

It is borrowed from French consternation (“dismay, confusion”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or directly borrowed from Latin cōnsternātiō (“confusion, dismay”),^[6][5][7][8] the noun of action from cōnsternō (“to overcome, confuse, dismay, terrify”).^[2][4][6] The Latin verb is probably related to a verb meaning “to throw down, prostrate”, a compound of com- and sternō (“to spread out, lay down, strew”),^[2][4][9][8] from Proto-Indo-European *stere- (“to spread”).^[2] Barnhart instead links the second part to sternāx (“throwing its rider”), cognate with Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “solid”),^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as akin to Old Norse stara (“to stare”).^[7][10] The English verb consternate, from 1651, was formed later from the Latin past participle.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Amazement and terror so great that they overwhelm the mind; dismay: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^[6][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1604,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1605–15.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The early sense, as Etymonline puts it, joined astonishment with terror.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as “astonishment; amazement; alienation of mind by a surprise; surprise; wonder”, quoting South on a “holy consternation”.^[12] Modern dictionaries define it more broadly, as anxiety, dismay or confusion,^[13][5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged includes troubled excitement and grievous exasperation.^[7]

Timeline

• 1611 – amazement and terror that overwhelm the mind; dismay.^[6][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1604.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A feeling of anxiety or dismay, often with confusion, caused by something unexpected: The news of the closure was met with consternation in the town.^{[13][7][6][5]}

Related words

• consternate
• prostrate
• stratum
• strew
• stare

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins