Meaning
Acute nervousness before or during a performance, speech or any task carried out in front of others; performance anxiety in everyday dress. Used well beyond the theatre, often lightly or about mild nerves before anything public, from wedding toasts and presentations to first dates, and it can strike at any level of experience. Neutral, often self-deprecating or sympathetic; commonly softened with 'a touch of' or 'a bout of'. Regional use: General English (theatrical origin).
Origin
A transparent compound of 'stage' and 'fright' that is younger than the stage itself. The OED's earliest evidence is from 1826, in Oxberry's Dramatic Biography, a British collection of theatrical lives, and the word belongs to a cluster of early nineteenth-century coinages about the profession ('stage fever' is recorded from 1799). As public performance spread from theatres to lecture platforms, concert rooms and eventually cameras, the phrase travelled with it, and 'performance anxiety' is now the clinical umbrella covering the same ground. Nothing about the origin is disputed; the theatre simply supplied the name for a fear every performer knows.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- get stage fright
Usage Examples
- Even seasoned lecturers admit to a flash of stage fright before a full auditorium.
- Her stage fright was so severe before the recital that her teacher taught her breathing exercises.
- The groom's stage fright at the microphone entertained the guests more than his speech did.