fearless

Etymology

It is formed from English fear + -less.^[2][3][4][5] The noun is from Middle English fere, from Old English fǣr (“sudden danger, calamity”).^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Unaffected by fear, bold: the OED's first example is from the Wars of Alexander, dated to the first half of the 15th century,^[2][7] and Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary reads the same line, which calls the phoenix "a fereles foule", as a different formation, from fere (“companion”), meaning matchless or without a mate.^[8] The next dates are 1540 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the late 16th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[9][4]

Semantic evolution

Alongside "free from fear", the late 16th and the 17th century used it in a passive sense, of a thing not feared or harmless (1599–1745),^[2][4][9] and once, in 1634, for "confident of".^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "free from fear; intrepid; courageous; bold", quoting Spenser's Faerie Queene.^[10] Since 1803 it has also described a bearing or look that shows no fear.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1450 – unaffected by fear, bold.^[2][7]
• 1599 – giving no cause for fear, free from danger (obsolete by 1600).^[2][7]
• 1612 – not regarded with fear (obsolete by 1745).^[2][7]
• 1634 – confident of (obsolete).^[2]
• 1803 – of a bearing or demeanour, showing no fear.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Free from fear; bold and ready to face danger: a fearless firefighter.^[9][11][2]
2. Of a look or manner, showing no fear.^[2]
3. (obsolete, 1599–1745) Not feared; harmless.^[9][2][4]

Word family

• fearlessly
• fearlessness

Related words

• fear
• fearful
• fearsome

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged treat it among the synonyms of brave, with courageous, intrepid and dauntless.^[11][9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt