taru-adjective, adverb taking the 'to' particle
Literary, somewhat old-fashioned word describing a state of being frozen with fear. Often used in the adverbial form 悚然として.
See also: 慄然
Hearing that story, he was terrified.
I stood frozen in horror.
Standard kanji form for this literary word.
Variant kanji form; less common than 悚然.
The exact derivation is uncertain; the kanji 悚 and 竦 both carry meanings related to fear or shrinking back, and 然 is a suffix forming adjectives/adverbs.