faze
Often confused with phase
- 1To disconcert or unsettle someone, causing hesitation or worry; most often used in the negative to stress that a person stayed calm.
Like a referee who stays calm no matter how loudly the crowd shouts.
Tough questions from reporters never seemed to faze the senator.
The sudden change in plans fazed the new employee more than she let on.
Similarfluster, rattle, unsettle, disconcert, unnerve
Oppositecalm, reassure, soothe, steady
Note
Its roots are in Kentish dialect, where feeze meant to alarm or frighten, and further back in Middle English fēsen and Old English fēsan, to drive away or put to flight. What once sent someone running now merely rattles them. Its natural habitat is the negative, often with nothing as the subject (nothing fazes her, let nothing faze you) or after would not, as in amounts that would not faze most social drinkers.
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Origin
"Faze" comes from the English dialectal (Kentish) word "feeze," meaning to alarm or frighten, which traces back through Middle English "fēsen" (to chase, drive away, or frighten) and Old English "fēsan/fȳsan" (to drive away or put to flight), and ultimately to Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European roots meaning to make ready or to go. It is related to Old Saxon "fūsian" (to strive) and Old Norse "fýsa" (to drive or goad), with records in the Oxford English Dictionary starting in 1830.