Originally meant 'danger,' not the emotion — from PIE *per- (to risk), kin to 'peril,' 'experience,' and 'pirate.'
An unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm.
From Old English 'fǣr' (sudden danger, peril, calamity), from Proto-Germanic *fērō (danger, ambush), from PIE *per- (to try, to risk, to press forward through danger). The word originally meant 'danger' itself — the external threat, not the internal emotion. This is preserved in the archaic phrase 'without fear of contradiction,' where 'fear' means 'risk' or 'danger,' not 'terror.' The semantic shift from objective danger to subjective emotion occurred during Middle English (13th–14th century), when 'fear' gradually displaced the older
'Fear,' 'peril,' 'experience,' 'experiment,' and 'pirate' all descend from PIE *per- (to try, to risk). Fear is what you feel when facing risk. Peril is the risk itself. An experience is 'a going through' (a trial). An experiment is 'a trying out.' And a pirate is 'one who tries/attacks' — from Greek
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