faze

Meaning

Verb

• To frighten or cause hesitation; to daunt, put off ; to disconcert, to perturb.

Origin

• From English dialectal (Kentish) feeze, feese, from Middle English fēsen ("to chase, drive away; put to flight; discomfit, frighten, terrify"), from Old English fēsan, fȳsan, from Proto-Germanic *funsijaną ("to predispose, make favourable; to make ready"), from Proto-Indo-European *pent- ("to go; to walk"). The word is cognate with Old Norse fýsa ("to drive, goad; to admonish"), Old Saxon fūsian ("to strive").
• Citations for faze in the Oxford English Dictionary start in 1830, and usage was established by 1890.