Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
AFEARD, AFEART, ppl.adj. Struck with fear; afraid. (Chiefly archaic. The aphetic forms feard, feart, are more common.) [ə′fi:rd + e, ə′fi:rt. See feard s.v. Fear, v. 3.]Sc. 1818 Scott Rob Roy I. ix.:
Ye were kindly afeared of committing a stranger into collision with the judicial forms of the country.Sc. [1826] J. Wilson Noctes Amb. (1855) I. 134:
Would I be afraid o' a teegger, Timothy? No half as afeard as you wad be yoursel.Mry. 1830 Sir T. D. Lauder Moray Floods (1873) 198:
“What's the woman afeard o'?” cried John.Abd. 1877 G. Macdonald M. of Lossie I. xiii.:
I'm only afeart 'at there be something wrang in mysel'.Ayr. 1822 J. Galt Entail (1850) 52:
What has vext you, Charlie? Has your father been severe upon you for ony misdemeanour, or hae ye done any thing that ye're afeared to tell?s.Sc. 1847 H. S. Riddell Poems 245:
Yon Chief, he exclaimed, that made a' men afeared, Never yet set his foot on o' this side the sea.Uls. 1904 Byers Sayings [etc.] of Uls., Vict. Coll. Mag. 40:
If a man is not specially courageous he is “afeard of his own shada.”
