A feeling that blends dread, reverence, and wonder, stirred by something of overwhelming grandeur.
A feeling that blends dread, reverence, and wonder, stirred by something of overwhelming grandeur — whether in its beauty, its force, or its scale.
Differs from simple wonder by its element of vastness and self-diminishment, and historically from fear by adding reverence and (later) positive wonder. Modern awe can be pleasurable or dread-tinged depending on context.
Native Germanic; from Old Norse agi “fright” — not a Latinate borrowing.
c. 1300, aue “fear, terror, great reverence,” from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse agi “fright,” from PIE *agh-es-. Merriam-Webster concurs.
A notable case of semantic shift. The original sense was fear/terror; Merriam-Webster now labels the pure “dread, terror” sense ARCHAIC. The modern sense (“dread mixed with admiration”) arose via biblical use referring to God, with reverence prominent through the 16th c., and from the 18th c. increasingly tied to the power and beauty of nature — becoming the largely positive “wonder” emotion of modern psychology.