[Meaning] I am afraid.[1]
And frequently Sophocles uses this [word] in reference to fearing. "For I would not have stood up to him with hesitation [if he were] in his right mind."[2]
And the orators used the noun not in reference to cowardice and laziness but in reference to fear and being afraid. Antiphon [writes]: "a bad man if he has a bold tongue for absent and future dangers and in wanting to press on, but when the deed is present, to shrink back."[3] And Demosthenes in the first of the Philippic [speeches writes]: "I say that you must help the situation in two ways, by saving the cities for the Olynthians and sending out the soldiers to do this, and by harming his [sc. Philip's] territory with triremes and other soldiers. But if you take little care of either of these, I hesitate [= fear] that the expedition may be undertaken in vain by you."[4] And in Homer o)/knos is applied in reference to fear; for Agamemnon says about his brother: "not yielding to hesitation or to foolishness of mind."[5]