afraid

English

Etymology

From Middle English affrayed, affraied, past participle of afraien (“to affray”), from Anglo-Norman afrayer (“to terrify, disquiet, disturb”), from Old French effreer, esfreer (“to disturb, remove the peace from”), from es- (“ex-”) + freer (“to secure, secure the peace”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from Proto-Germanic base *frijōnan (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”). Cognate with Old High German fridu (“peace”), Old English friþ (“peace, frith”), Old English frēod (“peace, friendship”), German Friede (“peace”). Compare also afeard. More at free, friend.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈfɹeɪd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd

Adjective

afraid (comparative more afraid, superlative most afraid)

1. (usually used predicatively, not attributively) Impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear.

   He is afraid of death.

   He is afraid to die.

   He is afraid that he will die.

2. (colloquial) regretful, sorry

   I am afraid I can not help you in this matter.

Usage notes

• (Impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear; apprehensive): Afraid expresses a lesser degree of fear than terrified or frightened. It is often followed by the preposition of and the object of fear, or by an infinitive, or by a dependent clause, as shown in the examples above.

Synonyms

• (Impressed with fear or apprehension): afeared, alarmed, anxious, apprehensive, fearful, timid, timorous
• (Regretful): sorry
• See also Wikisaurus:afraid

Derived terms

• 'fraid
• afraidness
• I'm afraid not
• I'm afraid so
• unafraid

Translations

impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear; apprehensive

American Sign Language: 5@NearSideChesthigh-PalmBack-5@NearSideChesthigh-PalmBack 5@NearInsideChesthigh-PalmBack-5@NearInsideChesthigh-PalmBack Bulgarian: изплашен (bg) Chinese: Danish: bange (da) Dutch: bang (nl), bevreesd (nl) Finnish: peloissaan, see also verb pelätä French: effrayé (fr) German: ängstlich (de) Hungarian: fél (hu) Indonesian: takut (id) Irish: expressed by a phrase using the noun eagla (ga) f. "fear"

Italian: paura (it) f. Japanese: 怖い (こわい, kowai) Kazakh: қорыққан (kk) (qorıqqan) Korean: 무서워하다 (ko) (mu-seo-wo-ha-da) Mandarin: 害怕 (cmn) (hàipà), 怕 (cmn) (pà) Mandarin: 害怕 (cmn), hàipà (cmn) Norwegian: redd (no), engstelig (no) Polish: obawiać się Russian: бояться (ru), испуган (ru) Spanish: tener miedo (es) Swedish: rädd (sv) Tagalog: takot Ute: i'javaga (Chemehuevi) Vietnamese: đáng sợ (vi)

colloquially, express sorrow

Chinese: Mandarin: 恐怕 (cmn) (kǒngpà) Finnish: pahoillaan (fi), see also verb pelätä

Norwegian: redd (no) Spanish: temerse que (es)

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: die · arm · wrong · #646: afraid · merely · struck · man's