Intimidation

How to spell intimidation

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce intimidation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intimidation mean?

1. nounThe act of frightening or pressuring someone, especially through threats, into doing what one wants.

Intimidation in a sentence

• The witness reported intimidation from people connected to the case.

• The company faced complaints of workplace intimidation by senior managers.

Where does intimidation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb timere, which simply meant 'to fear', and to its adjective timidus, meaning 'fearful' or 'easily frightened', the same root that gives us 'timid'. Medieval Latin built the verb intimidare, literally 'to make fearful', by adding the prefix in- in the sense of 'into' or 'to cause to be'. English adopted 'intimidate' in the seventeenth century, and the noun 'intimidation' followed soon after to describe the act of frightening someone into doing or not doing something. Over time the sense narrowed from general fear toward the deliberate use of threats or pressure to control another person's behaviour. A useful spelling memory is that the heart of the word is 'timid': picture making someone timid, and the single d before the -ation suffix falls into place.

How the word is built

• in- (into, to make)
• timid (from Latin timidus: fearful)
• -ation (noun of action)