Timorous means full of fear, timid, from Latin timor, fear, and has been on record since about 1450. It is the third of A.Word.A.Day’s “words with scene-stealing examples”, and the example is from The Economist: Vladimir Yakunin, then head of Russian Railways, explaining that Russia hadn’t invested in high-speed trains out of deference to the Finns, who are “by nature timorous” and might be frightened by trains that were too fast.