I'm wondering about the word “escaredâ€. I have heard this word used on television, mostly in older shows, usually spoken by children. I have heard it used where the word “scared†would be appropriate to use. Anyone know about this word and its usage? Or is it just an alternative pronounciation of "scared"?
People who have Spanish as their first language often put that "e" in front of words like scared. Maybe you remember Ricky Ricardo saying that to Lucy?
For an adult, I completely agree with torpeau. To me, that invokes a person whose primary language is Spanish.
But, I know lots of children who say escared or ascared and they are born and raised in the USA to parents of all sorts of backgrounds. I don't know much about child language development, but I always took it to be a mixture of afraid and scared.
Thanks for the info. What I am talking about is not the "e" sound added by some native Spanish speakers, but rather, when I have heard this word, it is spoken by native English speakers. Further, I now believe that it is the word "ascared" that I am hearing. I guess when I hear it, it sounds more like an "e" sound than an "a", and I never thought to look up "ascared". Dictionary.com has an entry for "ascared" which indicates that it is "Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S.". I grew up in south Louisiana, but have never heard "ascared" spoken apart from television. Here is an example of the word in an old popular TV show, at about 6:00 into the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqMQDb9aG4A
Thanks so much for the response
"Ascared" is, like "irregardless," a portmanteau -- the contraction or fusion of two distinct words that have a related meaning: "afraid" and "scared."