aspaventar

An archaic verb meaning to frighten or terrify someone — related to the noun aspaviento (an exaggerated, theatrical show of fright or alarm), which is still common today even though the verb itself has fallen out of use. Modern Spanish says asustar or atemorizar; aspaventar mostly survives in dictionaries and older texts.

• El trueno aspaventó a los animales del corral. — The thunder frightened the animals in the pen.
• En textos antiguos, aspaventar era sinónimo de espantar. — In old texts, aspaventar was a synonym of espantar.
• Ya nadie usa aspaventar; se dice asustar. — Nobody uses aspaventar anymore; people say asustar.

Using aspaventar in modern speech thinking it's just a fancier synonym of asustar — it reads as archaic rather than elevated, so hacer aspavientos (using the still-current noun) is the natural way to talk about dramatic displays of fright today.

Often confused with asustar.