scary

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈskeə.ri/, US /ˈsker.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English scare + -y, from the noun scare.^[2][3][4] It is also spelled scarey.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Terrifying, causing fright: 1582 in the OED and MWU, the 1580s in Etymonline.^[6][4][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “easily frightened, timid” is from 1800 and is originally and chiefly North American;^[6][2] in this sense it was formerly sometimes written skeery or skeary.^[2] The EDD records scary in Scots and northern English dialects, and in American use.^[7] The SOED labels the word colloquial,^[3] and in American campus slang it has also meant “good” (1969).^[8]

Timeline

• 1582 – frightening.^[6]
• 1800 – easily frightened.^[6]
• 1969 – good (campus slang).^[8]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. (informal) Frightening; causing fear or alarm.
2. Easily frightened; timid.

Word family

• scarily
• scariness

Related words

• scare
• scarecrow

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge