dread

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dreden,^[2][3][4][5] which is not found in Old English;^[2] it is probably a shortened form of adreden,^[2][3][5][6] inherited from Old English ādrǣdan, a late form of ondrǣdan (“to fear, dread”).^{[4][6][3][7][8]} Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com also give an Old English form drǣdan.^[9][10] The Old English verb corresponds to Old Saxon antdrādan and Old High German intrātan (“to fear”).^{[4][5][3][11][12]} Its first part is the prefix and- (“against”), as in answer,^{[4][13][7][6]} which Ayto relates to German ent- and to the Greek prefix that gave English anti-.^[13] The second part is obscure according to Hoad, the “Shorter Oxford” and Ayto,^[4][6][13] but Barnhart and Etymonline take it as rǣdan (“to advise, counsel”), so that the verb first meant "to advise against",^[3][7] and Etymonline traces that verb to Proto-Indo-European *re- (“to reason, count”).^[7] According to Barnhart and Weekley, the word was wrongly divided in late Old English after its first syllable, which left the d- at the start of the modern form.^[3][14] Ayto notes that the shortened prefix a- survived in adread until about 1400.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fear greatly, and also to regard with awe or reverence: about 1175, in the Lambeth Homilies.^[2] Barnhart dates the verb to probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle and Layamon's Chronicle of Britain,^[3] and Etymonline to the late 12th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb covered both terror and reverent awe; the sense of looking forward to something with fear or anxiety is recorded from before 1225, in the life of St Margaret.^[2] Reflexive dread oneself meant "to be afraid" (about 1175 to 1470), and the verb could also mean "to frighten" (about 1250 to 1681).^[2] The noun, formed from the verb, is recorded from about 1200 for great fear or awe,^[2][3][7] and since about 1400 also for a person or thing that is feared;^[2][7] in the phrases without dread and no dread it meant "no doubt" from 1340 to 1556.^[2][6] The adjective began as the past participle, "dreaded, frightful" (about 1400) and "held in awe" (1420),^[7][2][9] which Johnson (1755) defined as "terrible; frightful".^[15] The sense of awe survives in the archaic dread lord.^[9][6] Among Jamaican Rastafarians dread came to mean the fear of the Lord and a deep feeling of alienation from society, and then a Rastafarian, someone who wears dreadlocks;^[2][16] Green's dictionary records a dread for a Rastafarian from 1968,^[17] and the song "Natty Dread" (1974), by Bob Marley and the Wailers, brought the word to wider attention.^[16][2] In Irish slang a total dread has been something pitiful or distasteful since at least 1948.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – verb, to fear greatly; to regard with awe.^[2]
• c. 1200 – noun, great fear, awe.^[2][3][7]
• before 1225 – to look forward to with fear or anxiety.^[2]
• c. 1250 – to frighten (obsolete by 1681).^[2]
• 1340 – noun, doubt, in without dread (obsolete by 1556).^[2]
• c. 1400 – noun, a person or thing feared; adjective, dreaded, frightful.^[2][7]
• 1420 – adjective, held in awe, revered.^[2]
• 1968 – a Rastafarian.^[17]
• 1974 – among Rastafarians, the fear of the Lord; alienation from society.^[2]
• 1984 – dreads, dreadlocks.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fear greatly: Many sailors dread the winter storms.^[11][9][2]
2. To look forward to something with fear or anxiety: He dreaded the meeting with his boss.^[11][9][2]
3. (archaic) To regard with awe or reverence.^[11][9]

Noun

1. Great fear, especially of something that may happen; apprehension.^[11][9][2]
2. A person or thing that is feared.^[11][9][2]
3. (slang) A Rastafarian; in the plural, dreads, dreadlocks.^[11][2]
4. (archaic) Deep reverence or awe.^[11][9]

Adjective

1. Causing great fear; dreadful: a dread disease.^[9][6][11]
2. (archaic) Inspiring awe; revered: our dread sovereign.^[9][6][11]

Word family

• dreadable
• dreadness
• undreading
• dreadful

Related words

• adread
• dreadlocks
• dreadnought
• answer

Usage notes

In the dialects of Ireland and south-western England (Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and Devon), dread was also a form of thread.^[18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)