The state or quality of being afraid; fear or anxiety.
From 'afraid' (adjective) + '-ness' (suffix forming nouns). 'Afraid' comes from Old English 'afræded' (frightened). The '-ness' suffix has been added to adjectives for over 1,000 years to create abstract nouns.
While 'afraidness' grammatically makes sense, English speakers almost always prefer 'fear' or 'fright' instead—this shows that sometimes the most logical word formation loses out because a shorter, simpler word already does the job.
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