Other forms: feared, fears, fearing
Fear is the cold feeling that danger is near. A sudden fear, fear of heights, live in fear.
It is the immediate response to present danger, which distinguishes it from anxiety, which is about what might come. Fear of something is the standard construction. For fear of means in order to avoid. As a verb, fear is formal — I fear you are right — and is used to soften bad news. Note fearful, fearless, fearsome; and no fear, which in British informal use means certainly not.
1nounfearThe feeling that danger is near.
“Her hands were shaking with fear as she heard footsteps behind her in the dark.”
2verbafraidTo be afraid of something.
“Small children often fear the dark.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
fear is a feeling of danger.
Old English faer meant sudden danger rather than the feeling — the peril itself. English moved the word from the outside event to the inside response, which is unusual and happened only in this branch.
Proto-Indo-European
*per- — to go through, carry forth, try
Proto-Germanic
*fērō
Old English
fǣr
Middle English
feer
English, today
fear
Built from
From Middle English feer, fere, fer (“fear”), from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic fērō, fērą (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”). Cognate with Dutch gevaar (“danger, risk, peril”), German Gefahr (“danger, hazard, risk”), Danish fare (“danger, hazard, risk”), Faroese and Icelandic fár (“accident, anger, calamity”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fare (“danger”), Swedish fara (“danger, risk, peril”), Latin perīculum (“danger, risk, trial”), Ancient Greek πεῖρα (“trial, experiment”), Armenian փորձ (“attempt”). a doublet of peril. The verb is from Middle English feren, from Old English fǣran (“to frighten, raven”), from the noun. Cognate with the archaic Dutch - verb varen (“to fear, to cause fear”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA