Dream Deep

A present from Nick

April 13, 2008.

From the Oxford English Dictionary (online)

awe (noun)

I. As a subjective emotion.

{dag}1. Immediate and active fear; terror, dread. Obs.

2. From its use in reference to the Divine Being this passes gradually into: Dread mingled with veneration, reverential or respectful fear; the attitude of a mind subdued to profound reverence in the presence of supreme authority, moral greatness or sublimity, or mysterious sacredness.

[The actual awe, in 13th c. a{ygh}e, was a. ON. agi, acc. aga (Da. ave), representing an OTeut. *agon- wk. masc. (of which the OE. repr. would have been aga); but this was preceded in EE. by native forms descending from OE. {ehook}{asg}e, str. masc.,:{em}OTeut. *agiz str. neut., Goth. agis fear, taken as if it were a str. masc. agi-z. (Both f. ag-an to fear.) The ME. eye, (aye,) and awe, were thus in origin and derivation distinct though cognate words, but were practically treated as dialectal variants of the same word, of which aye was still used in s.w. c1400, while awe was in the n.e. c1250. The sense-development is common to both. They are therefore here taken together; the examples being separated into groups {alpha}(from OE. {ehook}{asg}e) and {beta}(from ON. agi).]