Etymograph

English

timorous

Timorous comes from Middle English timorous ‘(adjective) fearful, frightened’, and goes back to Medieval Latin timōrōsus.

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500timōrōsus
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400temoros
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500timorous‘(adjective) fearful, frightened’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1534same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500timōrōsus
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400temoros
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500timorous‘(adjective) fearful, frightened’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1534same form

Earliest quotation: 1534, Thomas More, A Treatice vpon the Passion of Chryste (Vnfinished) […]: “But thou now O temerous ⁊ weake ſely ſhepe,…”

The story

From Late Middle English timorous (‘(adjective) fearful, frightened; causing fear, dreadful, terrible; deferential, modest; (noun) timid people collectively’), borrowed from Old French temoros, temorous, from Medieval Latin timōrōsus, from timōr- (the stem of Latin timor (‘dread, fear’)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; prone to’). Timor is derived from timeō (‘to be afraid of, fear’) (further origin uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *temH- (‘dark’)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Every English word from Medieval Latin timōrōsus

Today it means

adj Tending to be easily frightened; shy, timid.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Medieval Latin timōrōsus / timorous

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