L’expression de la notion de ‘peur’ en latin et dans les langues romanes
The expression of the notion of fear in Latin and in the Romance languages

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims at providing an answer to the following research question : Is it possible to establish different models of semantic development in ancient Indo-European languages and their ancestor languages ? The immediate object of analysis is the origin of the lexemes encoding ‘fear’ in Latin and in the Romance languages. The etymological analysis of the lexical items denoting ‘fear’ in Latin allows us to trace their origin to a few initial meanings relating to different physical reactions to fear (shaking, numbness) or actions causing fear (to hit). The semantic models established in the Romance languages are markedly more diverse and abstract. While in Latin the models of semantic develop are exclusively based on metonymy, in its daughter languages new models have developed based on metaphor and relating predominantly to animals and beasts, but also to fantastic creatures and monsters.

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