![]() ![]() Oxford describes it as rare, and defines it as “trembling with fear or agitation.” “Trepidant,” the adjective you’re asking about, showed up more than two centuries later. The first of three examples is from Sacred Principles, Services, and Soliloquies, a 1650 book of devotions by William Brough: “Trembling, and chilnesse, and confusion in the powers of action … a stupid, trepid, troubled motion.” The OED says the rare adjective “trepid” showed up in the mid-1600s, meaning “trembling agitated fearful.” The now obsolete verb “trepidate” showed up around the same time, in The English Dictionarie: Or, an Interpreter of Hard English Words (1623), by Henry Cockeram: “ Trepidate, to tremble for feare.” The dictionary’s first citation for the new sense is from another work by Bacon, a 1625 collection of his essays: “There vseth to be more trepidation in Court, vpon the first Breaking out of Troubles, then were fit.” However, the noun soon took on the modern sense of “tremulous agitation confused hurry or alarm confusion flurry perturbation,” according to the OED. “Massiue bodies … haue certaine trepidations and wauerings before they fixe and settle.” The first example in the Oxford English Dictionary is from Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, a 1605 book by the philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon: When it showed up in the early 1600s, “trepidation” referred to a vibrating, oscillating, or rocking movement. “Trepidation” is the oldest of the English words and the most common today. M-W Unabridged also has two related adjectives: “trepidatious,” which is defined as “feeling trepidation: apprehensive nervous,” and “trepid,” defined as “timorous, trembling.” (We discussed “ trepidatious” and “ trepidated” in previous blog posts.)Īll of these words of agitation, including the noun “trepidation” and the obsolete verb “trepidate,” are ultimately derived from trepidāre, classical Latin for to hurry, to bustle, be agitated, or be alarmed. I believe it means timid, but I’d like to see how it’s used in a sentence before I use it myself.Ī: We’ve found the adjective “trepidant” in several standard dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster Unabridged, which defines it as “timid, trembling.” But it’s rarely used, which explains why you’ve had trouble finding an example. She could feel him shaking, the tremors running down into her arms.Q: My dictionary has the word “trepidant,” but no definition or example.The whiskey relieved the tremor in his hands.It was a good blast: you could feel the tremor up through your shoes.It improves all manifestations of the disease although rigidity and bradykinesia are benefited more than tremors.His voice had a slight tremor, and that annoyed him, but they didn't seem to notice.This kind of tremor also occurs in anxious patients.The medication can cause hair loss, tremors, and increased weight.Perhaps the damage here was only minor, a last tremor before the fabric of space-time mended again. ![]() Another well-known effect of caffeine is increased hand tremor, which has been measured in numerous experiments.From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English tremor trem‧or / ˈtremə $ -ər / noun 1 HE a small earthquake in which the ground shakes slightly an earth tremor 2 MI a slight shaking movement in your body that you cannot control, especially because you are ill, weak, or upset Examples from the Corpus tremor ![]()
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