shudder

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shoderen, also schuderen,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Middle Low German schōderen or schūderen in Middle Dutch,^{[2][4][5][6][7][8][3]} frequentative verbs from a Germanic base meaning "to shake",^[6][7][4][9] Proto-Germanic *skudjaną,^[10] which also gave Old Saxon skuddian (“to shake”), Old Frisian skedda (“to shake”), Dutch schudden (“to shake”) and Old High German scutten (“to shake”).^{[7][6][9][11][12]} Etymonline notes that it is not found in Old English,^[3] and Collins derives it from the Middle Low German verb alone.^[13] The OED instead treats it as inherited from Germanic, a cognate of the Low German and Dutch verbs,^[14] and Dictionary.com as a frequentative of Old English scūdan (“to tremble”).^[15] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Lithuanian kutėti (“to shake up”).^[4][11] German schaudern (“to shudder”) came from Low German.^[14][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

To tremble or quake: about 1225, in a life of Saint Katherine, “schuderin under schelde”, to hang back from a fight behind one's shield.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date the verb to about 1200, the OED to before 1350.^[4][3][14]

Semantic evolution

Middle English also used the verb for to scatter or disperse,^[2] a sense the OED records as late as about 1540 and marks obsolete,^[14] and in the alliterative Morte Arthure a spear shaft schoderede when it struck.^[2] With away or up it meant to shrink from something by 1668,^[14] and the phrase I shudder to think goes back to a construction with the infinitive recorded from 1743.^[14] Johnson (1755) defined it as to quake with fear or with aversion.^[17] The noun, a convulsive tremor of the body, is recorded in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens;^[14] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart date it to 1607.^[11][4] From 1849 the verb was used of things that vibrate or quiver,^[14] and the noun has had the same sense since 1865.^[14] In northern English dialect the verb was also transitive, to shake or jolt something.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – to tremble, quake.^[2]
• c. 1440 – of a spear shaft, to quiver after striking.^[2]
• 1607 – noun, a convulsive tremor of the body.^[11][4] The OED's first record is in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, from before 1616.^[14]
• 1668 – to shrink from, with away or up.^[14]
• 1743 – with an infinitive, as in I shudder to think.^[14]
• 1849 – of things, to vibrate or quiver.^[14]
• 1865 – noun, a tremulous or vibrating movement.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tremble suddenly and convulsively, from fear, horror, disgust or cold: The children shuddered at the ghost story.^[13][11][14]
2. Of a thing, to vibrate or shake: The old bus shuddered as it climbed the hill.^[11][14]
3. shudder to think: to be horrified at the thought of something: I shudder to think what the repairs will cost.^[14]

Noun

1. An act of shuddering; a sudden involuntary tremor of the body.^[13][11][14]
2. A vibrating or quivering movement.^[11][14]

Word family

• shudderingly
• shuddery
• unshuddering

Related words

• shutter

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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)
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
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)