panic
See also Panic
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle French panique, from Ancient Greek πανικός (“pertaining to Pan”). Pan is the god of woods and fields who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.
Alternative forms
- panick (obsolete)
Adjective
panic (comparative more panic, superlative most panic)
- (now rare) Pertaining to the god Pan.
- Of fear, fright etc: sudden or overwhelming (attributed by the ancient Greeks to the influence of Pan).
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Folio Society 2006, vol. 1 pp. 57-8:
- All things were there in a disordered confusion, and in a confused furie, untill such time as by praiers and sacrifices they had appeased the wrath of their Gods. They call it to this day, the Panike terror.
- 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 537:
- At that moment a flight of birds passed close overhead, and at the whirr of their wings a panic fear seized her.
- 1993, James Michie, trans. Ovid, The Art of Love, Book II:
- Terrified, he looked down from the skies / At the waves, and panic blackness filled his eyes.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Folio Society 2006, vol. 1 pp. 57-8:
Noun
panic (plural panics)
- Overpowering fright, often affecting groups of people or animals.
- 1994, Stephen Fry, The Hippopotamus Chapter 2
- With a bolt of fright he remembered that there was no bathroom in the Hobhouse Room. He leapt along the corridor in a panic, stopping by the long-case clock at the end where he flattened himself against the wall.
- 1994, Stephen Fry, The Hippopotamus Chapter 2
- (finance, economics) Rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of continuing decline in asset prices.
- 2008 July 11, Romaine Bostick, “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Are Sound; Panic Unwarranted, Dodd Says”, Bloomberg:
- "There is sort of a panic going on, and that is not what ought to be," Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, said at a press conference in Washington today. "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were never bottom feeders in the residential mortgage market."
- 2008 July 11, Romaine Bostick, “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Are Sound; Panic Unwarranted, Dodd Says”, Bloomberg:
Derived terms
Translations
overpowering fright
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Verb
panic (third-person singular simple present panics, present participle panicking, simple past and past participle panicked)
- To feel overwhelming fear.
Translations
to feel overwhelming fear
Related terms
Etymology 2
Latin panicum.
Noun
panic
Synonyms
- panicgrass, panic grass