English
panic
Nearest English gloss
sudden unreasoning fear, often shared
What the gloss loses
DON’T PANIC, on Adams’s fictional Guide, is typographic advice in large friendly letters. It is not an order to suppress a nervous system. Medical panic is not a moral failure.
Etymology
From Greek πανικός (panikos), of Pan, the god whose shout could stampede flocks and armies. Latin panicus; French panique. The word arrives in English as an adjective before it becomes a noun for sudden collective fear.
History
The literary instruction and the clinical condition must not be collapsed. DON’T PANIC is named for the former. It will not shame the latter.
What kind of steadiness is possible without pretending not to be afraid?