Etymology
From Proto-Italic *metu-, of uncertain origin. Klingenschmitt connects the word to Old Irish moth m (“astonishment”), which is semantically attractive; however, he does not explain the phonetic mechanisms by which the two words could be related.[1]
Noun
metus m (genitive metūs); fourth declension
- fear, dread
- Synonyms: terror m, timor m, pavor m
8 CE – 12 CE,
Ovid,
Sorrows 1.43–44:
- carminibus metus omnis obest; perditus ēnsem
haesūrum iugulō iam putō iamque meō.- Every fear is harmful to [writing] verses; I have already been destroyed, and now I suspect a sword will be stuck in my throat.
(Even though the poet had been sentenced to live in exile he still feared for his life.)
- anxiety, awe
Derived terms
- metuō
- in metū sum (I am in fear)
- meticulōsus
- metum concipiō (I become afraid)
- metum habeō (I am afraid, I entertain fear)
Descendants
- Padanian:
- Southern Gallo-Romance:
- Ibero-Romance:
- ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *metōrōsus (by analogy with *pavōrōsus)
References
- “metus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “metus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- metus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- to be comprised under the term 'fear.: sub metum subiectum esse
- a man is paralysed with fear: metus aliquem exanimat (Mil. 24. 65)
- to grow pale with fear: exalbescere metu
- to be completely prostrated by fear: metu fractum et debilitatum, perculsum esse
- to recover from one's fright: a metu respirare (Cluent. 70. 200)
- to recover from one's fright: ex metu se recreare, se colligere
- Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “mĕtus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 6/2: Mercatio–Mneme, page 62
- Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1985) “miedo”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume IV (Me–Re), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 66
De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “metus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 378