畏怖

• 読み: いふ
• ローマ字: ifu
• 漢字の分解: 畏 (i) — awe, reverential fear; 怖 (fu) — fear, dread
• 発音: /i.ɸɯ/

意味

Awe; dread; fear and reverence. A primal feeling of reverential terror before something overwhelmingly powerful or sacred.

More intense and visceral than 畏敬, 畏怖 emphasises the fear component alongside reverence, describing the instinctive dread one feels before forces — natural, divine, or cosmic — that utterly dwarf human capacity. Used as a verbal noun (畏怖する) or in the pattern 畏怖を感じる/覚える. Common in philosophical, religious, and literary writing about encounters with the sublime.

例文

1. 深夜の神社に一人立つと、言い知れぬ畏怖を感じた。
2. その書物は、神の存在への畏怖から生まれた宗教詩の傑作だ。
3. 自然の猛威の前に、人は本能的な畏怖を覚えずにはいられない。

使い方ガイド

場面: religion, philosophy, nature, literature

トーン: solemn

起源と歴史

Sino-Japanese compound. 畏 (i) means awe or reverential fear, 怖 (fu) means fear or dread. Together they express primal, reverential terror — a fear mingled with respect for something vastly powerful or sacred, beyond human control.

文化的背景

時代: Classical

世代: Adults

社会的背景: Educated