shudder
/ˈʃɐdə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.11 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A moment of almost pleasurable fear; a frisson.
Example Sentences
- "On seeing the spider under his pillow, John shuddered."
- "VVreath'd vp in fatall folds iuſt in his way, / The feare where of doth make him ſhake, & ſhudder, […]"
- "What makes me shudder so? / I shudder and I sigh to think / That even Cicero / And many-minded Homer were / Mad as the mist and snow."
- "Seeing the spider under his pillow gave John a shudder."
- "They name thee before me, / A knell to mine ear; / A shudder comes o'er me— / Why wert thou so dear?"
- "… and was not that slight tremble, a shudder which went through her young body, when his kiss, glowing and scorching with his wild passion, had dared to touch her tiny ice-cold hand?"
Etymology
From Middle English schoderen, schuderen, possibly from Middle Dutch schudderen and/or Middle Low German schodderen, iterative forms of the verb at hand in Dutch schudden, Low German schüdden (both “to shake”), German schütten (“to pour”), from Proto-West Germanic *skuddjan, from Proto-Germanic *skudjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *skewdʰ-. From Low German are also borrowed German schaudern (“to shudder”), Danish skudre, Swedish skudda. Alternatively, possibly from an unrecorded Old English *sċudrian, an iterative variant to Old English sċūdan (“to shudder, quake”), from Proto-West Germanic *skudrōn (“to shake, tremble”), from the same source as the Middle Dutch and Middle Low German terms above.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: schoderen, schudderen, schodderen, *skuddjan, *skudjaną, *skewdʰ-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʃɐdə/
- British English: /ˈʃʌdə/