Spooked

How to spell spooked

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spooked

What does spooked mean?

1. verbFrightened or startled someone or something, often suddenly and into nervous behaviour.
2. adjectiveFeeling nervous, uneasy, or frightened.

Spooked in a sentence

• verb

  A sudden bang spooked the horses in the field.

• adjective

  She felt spooked walking home alone after the lights went out.

• verb

  The falling profit figures spooked investors across the market.

• adjective

  The cat seemed spooked all evening after the thunderstorm.

Where does spooked come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

This word traces back to the Dutch noun 'spook', meaning a ghost or apparition, which English picked up in the early nineteenth century, partly through Dutch settlers in North America. At first 'spook' was simply a noun for a frightening spectre, but English speakers soon turned it into a verb meaning 'to frighten' or 'to startle', especially in the sense of unsettling a nervous animal like a horse. The past tense form 'spooked' then carried that meaning of having been suddenly alarmed. The doubled 'oo' comes straight from the original Dutch spelling and is part of why the word still looks slightly unusual on the page. It is a relative of the German 'Spuk', also meaning a haunting, and over time 'spooked' broadened from describing skittish animals to describing any person made jittery or wary.

How the word is built

• spook (ghost, scare)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)