‘Danger’
I noticed today a warning sign showing a an electrocuted chap (it would be a chap, wouldn’t it?) with a lightning-like blast of power thrusting him ground-ward. Said sign announced with all due authority: “Danger of Death”.
That got me thinking about ‘danger’. On its face it looks pretty French, we can all agree - but whence did it come before? Ultimately, it seems, from the Latin ‘dominus’. But that meant ‘lord’ or ‘master’. To be in ‘danger’ then, in Anglo-Norman times meant that one was literally ‘under the power of a master’. This shifted (circa 1300AD) into meaning ‘liable to punishment’ before settling as ‘liable to injury’ by the 1400s.
So, as the sign might otherwise say: be aware of the power of your masters!