afraid

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- (“out”) + freer (“to secure, secure the peace”), from Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from Proto-Germanic *frijōną (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”). Compare also afeard. More at free, friend.

• IPA^(key): /əˈfɹeɪd/

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• Rhymes: -eɪd

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 cannot help you in this matter.

• (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.

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

• afear
• afeared
• affray
• fray

• fear

af- (“un-”) +‎ rhaid (“necessity”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈavrai̯d/

afraid (feminine singular afraid, plural afraid, equative afreidied, comparative afreidiach, superlative afreidiaf)

1. unnecessary, unessential
   • c. 1500, Ieuan Tew, poem in Cwrt Mawr manuscript no. 5, published and translated 1921 by T. Gwynn Jones, “Cultural Bases. A Study of the Tudor Period in Wales”, Y Cymmrodor. The Magazine of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, vol. 31, page 182:

     mogelwch yma golyn
     a fo goeg, ag afu gwyn—
     a choegddyn crin, ledryn crach,
     o fradwr—nid afreidiach;

     beware of the sting of white-livered wretches, and every withered, niggardly wretch of a traitor—it were not less necessary;

   • c. 1600, Edmwnd Prys, quoted in A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative by J. Morris Jones, Oxford: 1913, p. 44:

     Amlwg fydd trŵyn a’r wyneb;
     Afraid i ni nodi neb.

     Plain is the nose on a face; it is unnecessary for us to mention anyone.

afraid m (plural afreidiau)

1. superfluity, extravagance

• Angharad Fychan and Ann Parry Owen, editors (2014), “afraid”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies