menace

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Something or someone that is a danger or threat.

   Drunk drivers are a menace to everyone on the road.

2. 2
   noun

   A threatening quality or feeling of danger.

   There was a hint of menace in his quiet voice.

3. 3
   verb

   To threaten or frighten someone.

   A gang of older boys menaced the younger children after school.

Simplified etymology

Menace comes ultimately from Latin minae, meaning “threats.” In Middle English it meant a threat, while the sense “a person or thing that threatens danger” appeared in the mid-19th century and later weakened to include an annoyance or nuisance.

First attested in 1303: from Middle English manacen, from Old French menacer, manecier, manechier and Anglo-Norman manasser, from the assumed Vulgar Latin *mināciāre, from Latin minācia, whence the noun.

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