timidity

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French timidité (“fear, apprehension”) and partly borrowed from Latin timiditās (“the quality of being timid”),^[2] the Latin noun being formed from timidus (“fearful, afraid”) and the suffix -tās.^[2][3][4][5] The adjective comes from timeō (“to fear”),^[4] a verb of uncertain origin.^[4] The revised OED records the noun earlier than the adjective timid, which comes from French timide and directly from the same Latin adjective.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lack of courage or confidence: before 1513, in J. Irland's Meroure of Wyssdome.^[2] Etymonline dates the word only to the 1590s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Latin noun could mean plain fearfulness, faint-heartedness or outright cowardice.^[4][5] Johnson (1755) gives "fearfulness; timorousness; habitual cowardice", and quotes Browne on the hare as a figure of pusillanimity and timidity.^[6] In French the word added the sense of a lack of assurance or ease in dealing with other people in the 17th century,^[2] and the OED's definition of the English word now takes in a lack of confidence or assertiveness as well as of courage.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged quotes it both for the natural fear of animals and, in C. V. Woodward, for the conformity of a whole period.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1513 – lack of courage or confidence.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being timid; a lack of courage, confidence or assertiveness: Her timidity kept her from speaking at the meeting.^[2][3]

Related words

• timid
• timorous
• intimidate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.