afraid

[soprano76]

when answering the door or the phone and the other person asks 2 speak 2 sum1 that isnt in....y do we say im afraid there not in....what r we afraid of???

[Quizmonster]

"I am much afraid my lady his mother played false" from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Using 'afraid' in circumstances where there is no real element of 'fear' has been common since the 1500s.

[jno]

afraid you've disappointed him; we like to please and are always just a little bit wary of upsetting someone we don't know.

[JillP]

Or, perhaps, afraid of offending the person. Isn't that why there is so much fuss raised these days about wearing England shirts and raising the English flag in England?