Comparative form of fearful; more full of fear or more easily frightened than something else.
From 'fearful' plus the comparative suffix '-er.' While 'more fearful' is the modern standard, '-er' comparatives follow the traditional pattern for one-syllable adjectives, though 'fearful' is two syllables.
This word reveals how English handles comparison in flux—we could say either 'fearfuller' or 'more fearful,' and the variation shows us that morphology is a living battle where older patterns compete with newer ones.
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