different between fearful vs bellicose

English

Alternative forms

• fearefull (obsolete)
• fearfull (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear +? -ful.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??f?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??f?l/
• Rhymes: -???f?l
• Hyphenation: fear?ful

Adjective

fearful (comparative fearfuller or fearfuler or more fearful, superlative fearfullest or fearfulest or most fearful)

1. Frightening.
2. Tending to fear; timid.

   a fearful boy

3. (dated) Terrible; shockingly bad.
4. (now rare) Frightened; filled with terror.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:

     Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]

Synonyms

• (frightened): frightened, timid, timorous
• See also Thesaurus:afraid and Thesaurus:cowardly

Translations

Adverb

fearful (comparative more fearful, superlative most fearful)

1. (dialect) Extremely; fearfully.

Further reading

• fearful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fearful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Lauffer

English

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], from Latin bellicosus.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?l?ko?s/, /?b?l?ko?s/

Adjective

bellicose (comparative more bellicose, superlative most bellicose)

1. Warlike in nature; aggressive; hostile.
   • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift

     The core Ice Age cast—wooly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano), sabertooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary), and sloth Sid (John Leguizamo)—are set adrift, sailing the high seas on a chunk of ice until they collide with a bellicose primate (Peter Dinklage).

2. Showing or having the impulse to be combative.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:combative

Antonyms

• pacific

Related terms

• antebellum
• bellicosity
• bellicism
• belligerent
• Bellona
• postbellum
• rebel
• rebellion

Coordinate terms

• trigger-happy
• warmonger

Translations

Italian

Adjective

bellicose f pl

1. feminine plural of bellicoso

Latin

Adjective

bellic?se

1. vocative masculine singular of bellic?sus

References

• bellicose in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)