Timorous means nervous and easily frightened. A timorous knock at the door.
It is gentler than cowardly, describing temperament rather than a failure of nerve. Timorous is the word in the famous line about a small mouse, which is where most people meet it.
1adjectivetimorousNervous and easily frightened.
“He gave a timorous account of what had happened.”
timorous is a quality.
Medieval Latin timorosus, from timor, fear, from timere, to be afraid.
Proto-Indo-European
*temH- — dark
Latin
timor — dread, fear
Medieval Latin
timōrōsus
Old French
temoros
Middle English
timorous — (adjective) fearful, frightened; causing fear, dreadful, terrible; deferential, modest; (noun) timid people collectively
English, today
timorous
Built from
From Late Middle English timorous (“(adjective) fearful, frightened; causing fear, dreadful, terrible; deferential, modest; (noun) timid people collectively”), borrowed from Old French temoros, temorous, from Medieval Latin timōrōsus, from timōr- (the stem of Latin timor (“dread, fear”)) + -ōsus. Timor is derived from timeō (“to be afraid of, fear”) (further origin uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European temH- (“dark”)) + -or. a doublet of timoroso.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA