fearthought
Excessive and unhealthy apprehensiveness; unnecessary fearfulness.
uncountable
To assist in the analysis of fear, and in the denunciation of its expressions, I have coined the word fearthought to stand for the unprofitable element of forethought, and have defined the word 'worry' as fearthought in contradistinction to forethought. I have also defined fearthought as the self-imposed or self-permitted suggestion of inferiority, in order to place it where it really belongs, in the category of harmful, unnecessary, and therefore not respectable things.
Where it comes from
Blend of fear + forethought. Coined by Horace Fletcher as part of New Thought Movement at the turn of the twentieth century.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry fearthought (CC BY-SA 4.0).