Awe, n.
Etymology: [OE. a, aghe, fr. Icel. agi; akin to AS. ege, , Goth. agis, Dan. ave chastisement, fear, Gr. ail. Ugly.]
1. Dread; great fear mingled with respect. [Obs. or Obsolescent] His frown was full of terror, and his voice Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe. Cowper.
2. The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence. There is an awe in mortals' joy, A deep mysterious fear. Keble. To tame the pride of that power which held the Continent in awe. Macaulay. The solitude of the desert, or the loftiness of the mountain, may fill the mind with awe -- the sense of our own littleness in some greater presence or power. C. J. Smith. To stand in awe of, to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly.
Syn. -- See Reverence.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Awe, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Awed (p. pr. & vb. n. Awing.]
To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread. That same eye whose bend doth awe the world. Shak. His solemn and pathetic exhortation awed and melted the bystanders. Macaulay.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for awe; he lists it under amazement, fear, veneration.
Where he writes about it:
Awe is the yielding of the mind to something supremely grand in character or formidable in power, and ranges from apprehension or dread to reverent worship. — from amazement
Awe is a reverential fear. — from fear
Awe is inspired by that in which there is sublimity or majesty so overwhelming as to awaken a feeling akin to fear; in awe, considered by itself, there is no element of esteem or affection, tho the sense of vastness, power, or grandeur in the object is always present. — from veneration
Dread is a shrinking apprehension or expectation of possible harm awakened by any one of many objects or causes, from that which is overwhelmingly vast and mighty to that which is productive of momentary physical pain; in its higher uses dread approaches the meaning of awe, but with more of chilliness and cowering, and without that subjection of soul to the grandeur and worthiness of the object that is involved in awe. — from veneration
Awe is preoccupied with the object that inspires it; dread with apprehension of personal consequences. — from veneration
Reverence and veneration are less overwhelming than awe or dread, and suggest something of esteem, affection, and personal nearness. — from veneration
We may feel awe of that which we can not reverence, as a grandly terrible ocean storm; awe of the divine presence is more distant and less trustful than reverence. — from veneration
Veneration is commonly applied to things which are not subjects of awe. — from veneration