There are lots of fun activities associated with Halloween, and probably the most famous is to trick or treat<\/strong>. This is a practice that originated in Medieval Britain and Ireland. In modern times it became a predominantly North American custom and the use of the term trick or treat<\/strong> at the doors of home owners was not common back in the UK until the 1980s. Trick or treaters<\/strong> dress up<\/strong> as all sorts of ghoulish<\/strong> (macabre<\/strong>) creatures: ghosts<\/strong> and goblins<\/strong>, witches<\/strong> and wizards,<\/strong> even Dracula <\/strong>and Freddy Krueger<\/strong>! Other Halloween<\/strong> traditions include carving out a frightening<\/strong> face in a pumpkin <\/strong>to make a jack-o\u2019-lantern<\/strong>; apple-bobbing, <\/strong>a game where you try to pick up with your mouth bobbing apples<\/strong> (apples moving in the water); and throwing fancy-dress<\/strong> parties for adults and children alike.<\/p>\n The lexical area of fear<\/strong> is rich and varied. First of all there\u2019s a large area of synonyms for the adjectives, starting with frightening<\/strong> and the slightly more colloquial scary<\/strong>; then there\u2019s creepy<\/strong>, which accentuates a certain unpleasantness, eerie, <\/strong>which suggests a strangeness as well as often something otherworldly: the eerie fog over the lake sent shivers up my spine\u2026 <\/em>and, spooky<\/strong> (from spook, <\/strong>a synonym of ghost<\/strong>), for me the least sinister of the group.<\/p>\n Haunted<\/strong> is used to describe a place frequented by spirits <\/strong>and ghosts<\/strong>, and many fairgrounds will have a haunted house<\/strong> the aim of which is to frighten<\/strong> the paying public. (If they don\u2019t have a haunted house<\/strong>, then may well have a ghost train<\/strong>, which has the same purpose).<\/p>\n Scary<\/strong> and frightening<\/strong> things make us scared<\/strong>, frightened<\/strong> or afraid<\/strong>. And, on a scarier<\/strong> level, terrifying<\/strong> things make us terrified<\/strong>. The key noun is fear<\/strong> and it is used to describe the reaction we have as an abstract concept. Fright<\/strong>, on the other hand, covers a narrower area and is to describe a sudden intense feeling of fear: you did give me a fright\/he made me jump up in fright<\/em>. Let\u2019s now look a little at verbs and expressions: you can scare<\/strong> or frighten the life out of<\/strong> someone, the hell out of<\/strong> them and even the living daylights out of<\/strong> them. You can also scare<\/strong> (but not frighten) them stiff <\/strong>or silly<\/strong> (both, again, suggesting an extreme level of scariness<\/strong>). You can also scare<\/strong> or frighten<\/strong> someone to death<\/strong> \u2013 so lots of possibilities there!<\/p>\n Finally, I\u2019d like to look at dread<\/strong>, a word that suggests both fear<\/strong> and apprehension<\/strong>, and that is commonly used in day-to-day contexts. It can be used as a noun: the thought of returning to London filled her with dread; <\/em>or a verb: Jim dreaded having to work at the weekends.<\/em> A useful way to conceptualize and remember it is to think of it as the semantic opposite of the common phrasal verb to look forward to<\/strong>. And here\u2019s a good and positive example to finish with: I am looking forward to Halloween!<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/virtualcampus.kingstraining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/article-2055578-06FB97C2000005DC-548_468x413.jpg\")
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