# Fear



## Hakkar

Hello everyone. I want the word "fear" to be translated in as much languages as possible. Thank you in advance for helping.

ITALIAN: Paura

RUSSIAN: Страх


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
Φόβος, _m._
F*o*vos


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## ThomasK

Dutch: *vrees*, or *angst* (probably related with 'eng', narrow)? There is of course also 'fobie', but that is not 'normal' fear... ;-)

How about your words? Any shorter basic words ?


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## Awwal12

In the Komi language: *страк* (*strak*), it is obviously a loanword from Russian.


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## sakvaka

In *Finnish*: _pelko_

This can be traced back to the same Proto-Uralic root as the *Hungarian *_félelem_.


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## RaLo18

Hebrew: פחד (_pakhad_) or פוביה (_fobya_).


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## Favara

It's _por_ in Catalan, but there's also the archaism _paor_ (nowadays a strictly literary word).


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## enoo

In French, *peur* (f.), and also *crainte* (f.)  (and various words depending of the amount/type of fear... effroi, frayeur, phobie, frousse, trouille...)


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## jazyk

In Portuguese: medo, pavor, temor, all three masculine nouns.


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## apmoy70

ThomasK said:


> How about your words? Any shorter basic words ?


Fovos is the main word used for fear. Τρόμος (tr*o*mos, _m._) is synonymous with "terror" (τρόμος derives from the verb «τρέμω», tr*e*mo, to shake/shiver; because when you experience an intense and profound fear, you shake/shiver). Δέος (ð*e*os, _m._), is the feeling of fear with anxiety when you experience something overwhelming. When I admire and at the same time fear, someone, I feel δέος. Πανικός (panik*o*s, _m._) means of course, panic->pertaining to Pan, the ancient Greek god of woods and fields who was half man-half goat and caused the mysterious and sudden sounds we hear when we camp in a forest, that make us fear.
What's interesting is that in Greek (ancient & modern) fear and its cognate concepts are male nouns [when usually all abstract ideas/concepts are feminine]. Φοβία (Fov*i*a, _f._), is the only feminine noun pertaining to fear (it of course means phobia), but it describes a pathological, groundless, irrational fear (e.g. agoraphobia: fear of wide open spaces and crowds, arachnophobia: fear of spiders etc.).
[I apologise for my rambling]


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic: خَوْف = khawf.


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## jana.bo99

Croatian: Strah

Slovenian: Strah


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## Axel_Carvalho

In Ukrainian it's _страх _[strakh]and_ б*о*язнь_ [boyazn'] (not very much used). The same is in Russian, except for the stress in the second word (it will be on the last syllable). Also the word _бо*я*знь _[bayazn'] is used much more frequently than in Ukrainian.


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## HUMBERT0

jazyk said:


> In Portuguese: medo, pavor, temor, all three masculine nouns.


In Spanish the most common word is: miedo
there is also pavor, temor, susto, terror, fobia, etc.


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## Encolpius

*Hungarian*: félelem


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## Cilquiestsuens

In Urdu / Hindi : *Dar *(with a retroflex 'd' and a short 'a' a bit like the 'u' in the English 'but')


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## Frank78

In German: *Angst* (f)



ThomasK said:


> Dutch: *vrees*, or *angst* (probably related with 'eng', narrow)?



That´s what I know, too. "Angst" comes from indogermanic "angh" (narrow) and "-st" means "belonging to", so: "which belongs to narrowness".


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*, the word for fear is *timo*.  A stronger word is *timego*.  The terms *fobio* and *angoro* also exist but are used more to refer to psychological conditions.


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## Cilquiestsuens

In the Breton language it is : *Aon*


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## ThomasK

So that is Celtic, I guess, not Indo-European, or is it? Yet the aon seems to resemble angst (an-) 
_(Feel free to contribute to other threads in this section as well: you might bring in some very new views !)_


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## Maroseika

Awwal12 said:


> In the Komi language: *страк* (*strak*), it is obviously a loanword from Russian.


That's strange because Komi has the words relating to the Finnish cognat mentioned above (pelko), namely: 
pelems - to fear
peli - a coward

Other languages:

Tatar                 - kurku
Turkish              - korku
Kazakh              - korkynysh
Uzbek                - qo'rqinch
Kirgiz                 - korkuu
Carachay-Balkar - kIorkIuu (guttural k's)
Karaim               - korchunč
Altai                   - korky (a verb)

Yakut                 - kuttal
Chuvash             - harav


Ossetian             - tas, tars
Gypsi - darav (to fear) 
Persian               - tars
Tajik                   - tars
Indonesian - tasati (verb), loaned from Sanskrit _trasyati _'he trembles'
Note: cf. these cognats with Russian - _trus _'coward' < _tr'astis_' (to tremble [with fear]) and Latin - _terreo_ and its descendants.

Mongolian           - ayh, emeeh, ergelzeh

Chinese - 悸 [jì]


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## Maroseika

Cilquiestsuens said:


> In Urdu / Hindi : *Dar *(with a retroflex 'd' and a short 'a' a bit like the 'u' in the English 'but')


Isn't it a cognat of Persian _tars_?


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## Outsider

ThomasK said:


> So that is Celtic, I guess, not Indo-European, or is it?


Celtic languages are part of the Indo-European family.


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## XiaoRoel

En galego:
*Medo, **temor, terror*, *pánico*
*Medo abalador* (medo moi grande) 
*A medo*: (recelosamente)


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## ThomasK

This is an excellent question as such, but I am very worried that these are not quite synonyms. I mean: there is peur, angoisse and anxiété in French, and this is the explanation in French: 


> La *peur* est liée à un objet, une situation précise. C'est donc l'objet, la situation qui déclenche l'état de *peur* alors qu'*anxiété* et angoisse restent bien diffuses.


But OK, maybe we can find a(nother) way to deal with that...


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## Awwal12

> That's strange because Komi has the words relating to the Finnish cognat mentioned above (pelko), namely:
> pelems - to fear
> peli - a coward


The Komi language has the noun "полöм" /p*o*ləm/, which also means "a fear". But, as far as I got it, the word "страк" /strak/ is more widespread and has slightly more general meaning.

P.S.: By the way, you are mixing up Komi-Zyryan and Moksha-Mordvin languages AGAIN. 

P.P.S.: In Moksha-Mordvin language "a fear" is "пелема" /p*e*lema/.


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## Maroseika

Awwal12 said:


> P.S.: By the way, you are mixing up Komi-Zyryan and Moksha-Mordvin languages AGAIN.
> .


Yes, you are right. Thanks.


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## Trauer

Polish (as in many other slavic languages): Strach


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## Equinozio

In Tagalog: *takot*


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## ThomasK

I am just wondering about whether any of you make a difference between : 

- I fear (am afraid of) a bear.
- I am afraid I won't be having supper with you this evening.


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## apmoy70

ThomasK said:


> I am just wondering about whether any of you make a difference between :
> 
> - I fear (am afraid of) a bear.
> - I am afraid I won't be having supper with you this evening.


Not in Greek. In both cases we'd use the same verb:
Φοβάμαι (fo'vame), or more formally, φοβούμαι (fo'vume)


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## ThomasK

Aha... Do they constitute two kinds of fear to you (in your intuition), or is it just a different degree of fear, not necessitating distinction?


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## apmoy70

Well in Greek I feel fear (φοβάμαι):
-When Ι encounter something perceived as a threat (i.e. a bear);
-When Ι worry about someone or something; e.g we say "I haven't seen him/her for days and _I fear_ [i.e. worry]".
-When Ι have the suspicion, the sense or the certainty that something negative is about to happen or has happened; e.g. we say "_I fear_ you were right that this [something bad] would happen"


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## ThomasK

So even 'worry' can be translated by 'fear'. Thank you, very interesting (challenging...) !


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