Causing fear or terror; alarming or disturbing in a way that makes one afraid.
From Old English 'fyrhtan' meaning 'to frighten,' related to 'forht' meaning 'afraid.' The '-ing' participial form developed in Middle English as the language evolved more complex verbal forms. Germanic roots connect to similar fear-words across Northern European languages.
The word demonstrates how fear vocabulary is among the most stable across languages and time - we've needed words for scary things since humans first developed language. Psychologically, what we find 'frightening' often says more about our cultural anxieties than actual threats.
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