With 13.8 billion years of evolution now accelerating at unprecedented exponential rates of development, there is much fear of change in the world today.
More to come.
Noun fere about 1280, from Old English fǣr ‘danger, sudden calamity’, later ‘uneasiness caused by possible danger’, from Proto-Germanic *feraz ‘danger’, from PIE base *per-³ ‘to try, risk’.
Verb feren or fearen, about 1225, from Old English færan ‘to terrify, frighten’, from fǣr ‘danger’. The sense of ‘feel fear’ is from about 1390.
The modern spelling was not established before the 1500s.