Etymologically
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scare

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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
  • 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