tremor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tremour, also tremor,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French tremor, also tremour, meaning fear or terror from the 13th century and a trembling or quivering from the 15th,^[3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin tremor (“a trembling, terror”),^[5][2] from tremō (“to tremble”).^[3][4][6] The Anglo-Norman noun tremur is recorded from the third quarter of the 13th century for trembling in fear.^[7] The OED notes that the word was reintroduced in its Latin form tremor in the 17th century,^[3][4] and the Oxford Dictionary of English dates the current word from the early 17th century, from Latin.^[8] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford relate the Latin verb to a Greek verb meaning to tremble.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Terror, a palpitation caused by fear: about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, where a man feels swich a tremour about his heart that his body quakes.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense, terror, was obsolete by about 1490.^[3][10] The general sense of an involuntary shaking appears in 1615, in Helkiah Crooke's anatomy,^[3][5] and Etymonline thinks it probably represents a fresh borrowing from Latin.^[4] From 1616 the noun could be counted, a fit of trembling,^[3] and in 1635 it was applied to a vibration caused by an outside force,^[3] which gave earth tremor, a small earthquake.^[3][11] The figurative sense, a nervous thrill of excitement, is first recorded in Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison (1753),^[3][12] and a quaver in the voice in Ann Radcliffe's The Italian (1797).^[3] The verb, to shake with tremors, dates from 1921.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – terror (obsolete by about 1490).^[3][2]
• 1615 – involuntary shaking of the body or limbs.^[3][5]
• 1616 – a fit of trembling.^[3]
• 1635 – a vibration or shaking caused by an outside force.^[3]
• 1753 – a nervous thrill of emotion or excitement.^[3]
• 1797 – a tremble in the voice.^[3]
• 1921 – verb, to shake or tremble.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An involuntary trembling or shaking of the body or a limb, from weakness, illness, fear or other strong feeling: The old man's hands had a slight tremor.^[12][11][3]
2. A quivering or vibration, as of the ground; in particular, a small earthquake (earth tremor).^[11][3][12]
3. A thrill of excitement or nervousness: She felt a tremor of anticipation as the curtain rose.^[12][3]
4. A trembling or quaver in the voice or in a sound.^[3][11]
5. (obsolete, c. 1374–1490) Terror.^[3][2][10]

Verb

1. To shake or tremble with tremors.^[12][11][3]

Word family

• tremorous
• microtremor

Related words

• tremble
• tremulous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster