Definition Essay: The Word Panic

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Panic, according to Oxford English Dictionaries means “a sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often caused by wildly unthinking behavior.” That definition can be portrayed differently; some may consider panic as something as simple as losing their phone or as complex as the famine going on in South Africa. Panic provokes very intense feelings of distress and to some can be triggered as easily as getting a jump scare out of them or most commonly people panic upon the feeling of impending death and will always trigger a significantly increased heartbeat. The word panic, to me, brings with it fear and anxiety. It seems as if I am always panicking these days with trying to be a full time college student and also working a fulltime job; I get …show more content…

That ancient definition still seems to hold true today unlike other words that sometimes get lost in translation and don't mean what they had originally meant. One of my favorite quotes from J.K. Rowling that seems to hold so true is “It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up.” This is more a quote about dreading but dreading something definitely has traits of panic in it. According to Oxford English Dictionaries, the word “dread” (dreading) means to “anticipate with great fear apprehension or fear,” which basically means to worry and to worry is to panic. As stated previously the word panic comes from the greek and derives from the word “panikos” pertaining to “pan”, which refers to the greek forest god, Pan. Now Pan was the ancient greek god of the shepherds, flocks, and forest, he is depicted with the upper body of a human and the lower body and horns of a goat and is often seen dancing with woodland nymphs. Now what does a dancing goat man have to do with panic, well along with being playful, Pan was also very mischievous. He would often hide in the bushes along a forest trail and wait for some lonesome traveler to pass by. As the traveler passed, Pan would rustle the bushes,

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