different between threat vs consternation

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: thr?t, IPA^(key): /???t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English threte, thret, thrat, thræt, threat, from Old English þr?at (“crowd, swarm, troop, army, press; pressure, trouble, calamity, oppression, force, violence, threat”), from Proto-Germanic *þrautaz, closely tied to Proto-Germanic *þraut? (“displeasure, complaint, grievance, labour, toil”), from Proto-Indo-European *trewd- (“to squeeze, push, press”), whence also Middle Low German dr?t (“threat, menace, danger”), Middle High German dr?z (“annoyance, disgust, horror, terror, fright”), Icelandic þraut (“struggle, labour, distress”), Latin tr?d? (“push”, verb).

Noun

threat (plural threats)

1. An expression of intent to injure or punish another.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3

     There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats.

2. An indication of potential or imminent danger.
3. A person or object that is regarded as a danger; a menace.

Usage notes

Adjectives at least commonly used along with the noun: existential, possible

Derived terms

• idle threat

Related terms

• threaten
• threatening

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English threten, from Old English þr?atian (“to press, oppress, repress, correct, threaten”). Akin to Middle Dutch dr?ten (“to threaten”).

Verb

threat (third-person singular simple present threats, present participle threating, simple past and past participle threated)

1. (transitive) To press; urge; compel.
2. (transitive, archaic) To threaten.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.vii:

     An hideous Geant horrible and hye, / That with his talnesse seemd to threat the skye […]

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, V. i. 37:

     O yes, and soundless too; / For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony, / And very wisely threat before you sting.

3. (intransitive) To use threats; act or speak menacingly; threaten.

Anagrams

• Hatter, hatter, rateth, that're

English

Etymology

From French consternation, from Latin constern?ti?.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?n.st??ne?.??n/
• (US) enPR: k?n?st?r.n?'sh?n, IPA^(key): /?k?n.st??ne??.??n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

consternation (countable and uncountable, plural consternations)

1. Amazement or horror that confounds the faculties, and incapacitates for reflection; terror, combined with amazement; dismay.
   • 1899, Kate Chopin, The Awakening

     "Out!" exclaimed her husband, with something like genuine consternation in his voice.

   • 2003, Terrance Dicks & Barry Letts, Deadly Reunion, chapter 17:

     Their audience had been listening in increasing consternation.

   • February 27, 2006, Chuck Klosterman in Esquire, Invention's New Mother

     It was probably worth four millennia of consternation and regret.

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin constern?ti?. Morphologically, from consterner +? -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??s.t??.na.sj??/

Noun

consternation f (plural consternations)

1. consternation

Further reading

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