Etymologically
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paura

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Pronunciation

Forms

paura f (plural paure)[1] Old and rural forms include Old Italian pavura, Old Italian pagura (in Domenico Cavalca), Old Italian paora (in Cino da Pistoia) and Old Italian paor.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pavor (“terror, fear”), from the accusative ⟨pavorem⟩, with its ending replaced by the suffix ⟨-ura⟩.[4][5][6][1] Devoto, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti start from a reconstructed Vulgar Latin *pavura, an abstract noun in ⟨-ura⟩ with the meaning of the classical word; the late Latin ⟨paor⟩ is condemned in the “Appendix Probi”.[7][8][9][10] The classical form continues in Old French paor, Occitan por, Catalan por, Spanish pavor and Portuguese pavor, the suffixed one in Spanish pavura; French peur has not been fully explained.[5][11]

Latin pavor is formed from paveō (“to be frightened”).[4][1][12] Its origin is uncertain: Walde–Hofmann and Ernout–Meillet take the verb as the stative counterpart of paviō (“to beat, strike”), so that fear would first have been “being struck”, while de Vaan, following Schrijver, prefers to compare Celtic words for fear such as Old Irish omun, from Proto-Indo-European *pou-eh₁- (“to fear”).[13][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ritmo laurenziano, at the end of the 12th century: “di paura sbaguttisco” (I am stricken with fear).[4][3] The sense is the strong disturbance caused by a real or imagined danger.[4]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its meaning since the 12th century;[3] Brunetto Latini and Iacopone use it for fear in the face of danger and death.[3] The adjective pauroso meant “fearful” in Frederick II, before 1250, and “frightening” in Dante in 1293–1294.[4] Spauracchio “scarecrow, bugbear” replaced an older spaventacchio.[2]

The commonest modern phrases are avere paura and fare paura;[6][9] ho paura che also expresses mere worry or polite doubt.[6][9] In colloquial use da far paura stresses something bad, as in brutto da far paura, while in young people's slang da paura means “fantastic”.[6][8]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – The Ritmo laurenziano uses paura.[4]
  • Before 1250 – Frederick II uses pauroso “fearful”.[4]
  • 1293–1294 – Dante uses pauroso “frightening”.[4]
  • 14th century – Impaurire, spaurare and spaurire are recorded.[5]
  • 17th century – Spauracchio is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. fear, the emotion felt before a real or imagined danger: Quella notte ebbe una gran paura.[6][8][9]
  2. A habitual fear of something, a phobia: Mio figlio ha paura dei temporali.[6][9][14]
  3. worry, apprehension, a feeling that something bad will happen: Ho paura che sia troppo tardi.[9][1]
  4. (colloquial) da (far) paura, terribly, frightfully; in youth slang da paura, amazing.[6][8]

Word family

  • pauroso
  • impaurire
  • spaurire
  • spaurito
  • spauracchio

Usage notes

Set phrases include avere paura della propria ombra “to be afraid of one's own shadow”, il coraggio della paura, the boldness that fear itself can give, and cavaliere senza macchia e senza paura “a knight without fear and without reproach”.[6][8][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 753
  3. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 863
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 321
  8. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana