Etymologically
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pavor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpa.wɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpaː.vor][1]

Forms

pavor m (genitive pavōris); third declension[1] An older nominative pavōs is found in Naevius and Pacuvius.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from paveō (“to be frightened”) with the suffix -or.[2][1][4] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *pawē- (“to be frightened”) and Proto-Indo-European *pou-eh₁- (“to fear”), and follows Schrijver in comparing the Celtic words for fear, Old Irish omun and Old Irish úath, with Welsh uthr (“terrible”).[4] Walde–Hofmann and Ernout–Meillet instead took ⟨paveō⟩ as “to be struck”, the stative partner of paviō (“to beat, strike”), which de Vaan calls possible.[4] Varro already derived the noun from ⟨paveō⟩, and Isidore from ⟨paviō⟩.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Livius Andronicus' Odyssey: Ulixī cor frīxit prae pavōre, “Ulysses' heart froze for fear”.[2][6][4]

Semantic evolution

It is sudden fear or fright, then panic seizing many at once, as in Livy's city full of terror, Tullus vowed shrines to Pallor and Pavor, fear in person.[2] It is also a thing that causes terror, and fear of what is to come, dread.[2] Pliny the Elder's pavor aquae is hydrophobia, and Virgil uses it of the throbbing excitement of young charioteers at the start of a race.[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “fear, dread, terror”.[7]

Timeline

  • 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus of sudden fear.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of eager excitement.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of panic and of Pavor as a god.[2][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of hydrophobia.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Sudden fear, terror, fright; panic.[2][1][7]
  2. (personified) Pavor, Fear as a god.[2]
  3. A cause of terror.[2]
  4. Fear of what is to come, dread, anxiety.[2][1]
  5. (medicine) pavor aquae, fear of water, hydrophobia.[2]
  6. Thrill, trepidation (in expectation).[2][1]

Usage notes

The Appendix Probi insists on pavor, not paor, a sign that the /w/ was being lost between vowels.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson