different between scare vs affraid

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sk??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sk??/
• Rhymes: -??(r)

Etymology 1

From Middle English sker, skere (“terror, fright”), from the verb Middle English skerren (“to frighten”) (see below).

Noun

scare (plural scares)

1. A minor fright.
2. A cause of slight terror; something that inspires fear or dread.

   a food-poisoning scare

3. A device or object used to frighten.

Synonyms

• fright

Related terms

• scary

Translations

See also

• scarecrow

Etymology 2

From Middle English scaren, skaren, scarren, skeren, skerren, from Old Norse skirra (“to frighten; to shrink away from, shun; to prevent, avert”), from Proto-Germanic *skirzijan? (“to shoo, scare off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to swing, jump, move”). Related to Old Norse skjarr (“timid, shy, afraid of”). Cognate with Scots skar (“wild, timid, shy”), dialectal Norwegian Nynorsk skjerra, dialectal Swedish skjarra and possibly Old Armenian ??? (c?i?, “wild ass”).

Verb

scare (third-person singular simple present scares, present participle scaring, simple past and past participle scared)

1. To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
   • 1995, The Langoliers

     (Laurel Stevenson) Would you please be quiet? You're scaring the little girl.

     (Craig Toomey) Scaring the little girl?! Scaring the little girl?! Lady!

Synonyms

• frighten
• terrify
• See also Thesaurus:frighten

Translations

Derived terms

Etymology 3

Adjective

scare (comparative more scare, superlative most scare)

1. lean; scanty

Anagrams

• CERAs, Cares, Ceras, Cesar, Crase, Creas, Races, SERCA, acers, acres, cares, carse, caser, ceras, crase, e-cars, races, sacre, serac, sérac

French

Etymology

From Latin scarus (also genus name Scarus), from Ancient Greek ?????? (skáros).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ska?/

Noun

scare m (plural scares)

1. parrotfish

Further reading

• “scare” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• âcres, caser, César, crase, créas, races, sacre, sacré

English

Adjective

affraid

1. Obsolete spelling of afraid