dread [OE] The original word for ‘to fear greatly, regard with awe’ was adread, shortened to dread in the Middle Ages. Among Rastafarians, members of the Jamaican cult that believes Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was the Messiah, dread is dread of the Lord, and more generally a deep-rooted sense of alienation from contemporary society. Rastafarians wear dreadlocks, a hairstyle in which the hair is washed but not combed, and twisted while wet into tight braids. Dreadlocks are sometimes simply dreads. These uses were originally Jamaican, but came to wider attention in 1974 in ‘Natty Dread’, a song performed by Bob Marley and the Wailers. See also natty. The most familiar dreadnought is a type of large, fast battleship equipped with large-calibre guns, the first of which, HMS Dreadnought, was launched in 1906. But before that, in the early 19th century, a dreadnought was a very warm coat worn in cold weather, or a fearless person.