Other forms: shocked, shocking, shocks
Shock is a dangerous drop in circulation after injury. Treat for shock, in shock, hypovolaemic shock.
The medical sense is precise and serious: the body is not getting enough blood to the organs, and it can kill. It is not the same as the everyday sense of being upset, though the two words are identical, which causes real confusion in first aid. Note electric shock; shock absorber; and shock as a verb, meaning to upset or scandalise.
1nounshockA dangerous drop in circulation after injury.
“The driver had lost a lot of blood and went into shock before the ambulance arrived.”
2verbupsetTo upset or scandalise somebody.
“The violent scenes in the film shocked many viewers.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Middle French choquer meant to collide with, from a Germanic root about shaking. The medical sense was borrowed from the idea of a violent blow to the system.
Proto-Indo-European
*skek-
Proto-Germanic
*skukkaną — to move, shake, tremble
Old Dutch
*skokkan — to shake up and down, shog
Middle French
choquer — to collide with, clash
Middle Dutch
schokken — to push, jolt, shake, jerk
English, today
shock
Built from
From Middle Dutch schokken (“to push, jolt, shake, jerk”) or Middle French choquer (“to collide with, clash”), from Old Dutch skokkan (“to shake up and down, shog”), from Proto-Germanic skukkaną (“to move, shake, tremble”). Of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic skakaną (“to shake, stir”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)kek-, (s)keg- (“to shake, stir”); see shake. Cognate with Middle Low German schocken (“collide with, deliver a blow to, move back and forth”), Old High German scoc (“a jolt, swing”), Middle High German schocken (“to swing”) (German schaukeln), Old Norse skykkr (“vibration, surging motion”), Icelandic skykkjun (“tremulously”), Middle English schiggen (“to shake”). a doublet of shog.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA