Etymologically
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dread

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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)