trepidation
/ˌtrɛpɪˈdeɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1A feeling of fear or anxiety about something that may happen: the men set off in fear and trepidation...
- For from some deep reaches of my soul, an icy cold fear and trepidation had exploded upward.
- Selling a property in this country can be a fraught business, full of fear and trepidation and attended by frustration and delay at every point.
- This he did, in fear and trepidation, taking with him two other church workers who were accompanying him.
Synonyms
fear, apprehension, dread, fearfulness, apprehensiveness, agitation, anxiety, worry, nervousness, tension, misgivings, unease, uneasiness, foreboding, disquiet, disquietude, perturbation, discomposure, dismay, consternation, alarm, panic, trembling, jumpiness;
British nerviness
informal butterflies, jitteriness, the jitters, a cold sweat, a blue funk, the heebie-jeebies, the willies, the shakes, the yips, the jim-jams, collywobbles, cold feet
British informal the (screaming) abdabs/habdabs
Australian rhyming slang Joe Blakes
2 archaic Trembling movements or motion.
Origin
Late 15th century: from Latin trepidatio(n-), from trepidare 'be agitated, tremble', from trepidus 'alarmed'.
tremendous from mid 17th century:
Tremendous goes back to Latin tremere ‘to tremble’, and had the original sense of something that makes you tremble (Middle English). Trepidation (Late Middle English) and intrepid (late 17th century) are from the related trepidare ‘tremble’.