- Today's Word
Trepidation
[trep-i-DAY-shun]
Definition
- (noun) A feeling of fear or anxiety about something that may happen. It describes a state of nervous uncertainty or apprehension about a future event or situation.
Example
As she approached the stage to give her first public speech, Sarah felt a sense of trepidation, her heart racing and palms sweating.
Fun Fact
The word “trepidation” comes from the Latin word “trepidare,” meaning “to tremble.” In medieval astronomy, it was used to describe a hypothetical oscillation of the heavens, believed to account for certain irregularities in the precession of the equinoxes. This astronomical use is now obsolete, but it shows how words can shift in meaning over time. Today, “trepidation” is primarily used to describe emotional states rather than celestial movements.
(adjective) Lacking substance, interest, or mature thought; naive and simplistic in a way that reveals inexperience.
The critic dismissed the debut novel as jejune — competently written, technically adequate, and utterly devoid of anything worth remembering.
Jejune derives from the Latin jejunus, meaning “fasting” or “empty” — literally describing a stomach that has not been fed. The same root gives us jejunum, the section of the small intestine named for its tendency to be found empty after death. It entered English in the 17th century carrying its literal sense of emptiness before acquiring its figurative meaning of something intellectually or creatively hollow — content that has the form of nourishment without any of the substance.