scare

Pronunciation

• IPA: /skɛə/ (UK); /skɛɚ/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is an alteration of Middle English skerren, to frighten,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse skirra (“to frighten; to shrink from, shun”),^[3][2][4] from Old Norse skjarr, shy, timid,^[3][4][5] a word of unknown origin.^[3][2] Etymonline calls the change of vowel unusual;^[3] Scots skair and dialect skeer, skear seem closer to the expected development.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To frighten: about 1200, in the Ormulum.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The modern spelling scare appears in 1591, in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1.^[2] Scare up, in American English from 1846, first meant to frighten game out of cover, hence to bring to light or procure.^[2][3] The noun, earlier Middle English sker, fear (about 1400),^[3] was something that frightens, a scarecrow, in the 1520s, and a sudden panic or false alarm from the 1540s.^[3][6] Scare tactic is by 1948.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – skerren, to frighten.^[2]
• 1520s – something that frightens (noun).^[3]
• 1540s – a sudden panic.^[3]
• 1591 – the spelling scare.^[2]
• 1846 – scare up.^[2]
• 1948 – scare tactic.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To fill with sudden fear; to frighten or alarm.
2. To become frightened.
3. To drive away or off by frightening.
4. (scare up, informal) To find or put together, often with difficulty.

Noun

1. A sudden fright.
2. A general state of alarm; a panic.

Adjective

1. Meant to frighten people: scare tactics.

Word family

• scarer
• scaringly
• scarehead
• scary
• scarecrow
• scared
• scaredy-cat

Related words

• skittish

Usage notes

A scare is also an old golf term for the part of a club where the head joins the shaft, from Old Norse skǫr, a joint.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press