Other forms: unnerved, unnerving, unnerves
To unnerve is to take away somebody's confidence and steadiness. Unnerve the batsman, unnerved by the silence, deeply unnerving.
The effect is on the nerve rather than on the mind — an unnerved person can still think and cannot steady their hands. Silence and stillness unnerve people more reliably than noise. Note the double n, from un- plus nerve.
1verbunnerveTo take away somebody's confidence and steadiness.
“The long silence on the phone began to unnerve her.”
unnerve is an unsettling.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)neh₁-
German
nerven
Latin
nervus — sinew
Medieval Latin
nervus — nerve
Middle English
nerve
English
nerve
English, today
unnerve
From un- + nerve. nerve Recorded since circa 1374 as Middle English nerve, from Medieval Latin nervus (“nerve”), from Latin nervus (“sinew”). a doublet of neuron and sinew. get on someone's nerves is chiefly a German nerven.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA