At the root of Yirah, it means to “see” Hashem. When you come to “see” Hashem you will be both in awe and in fear.
I’m not so certain of that. The two words have completely different shorashim. Yes, they sounds similar in certain tenses, but they are not the same word.
Aside, if you’re a ba’al kriah, you must be careful to differentiate between yiru (they saw — pronounced with a sh’va nach) and yir’u (they feared – pronounced with a sh’va na).
The former can be found in Ki Sisa (24:10 — note only one yud in the word VaYiru)
??????????, ??? ??????? ??????????; ??????? ????????, ??????????? ??????? ??????????, ????????? ???????????, ???????
The latter can be found right before Az Yashir (note the two yuds in the word VaYir’u):
???????? ?????????? ???-?????? ??????????, ?????? ?????? ?????? ????????????, ??????????? ?????, ???-??????; ?????????????, ????????, ??????????, ????????.
Reading the word the wrong way changes the meaning and the ba’al kriah is required to go back and read it again correctly.
The Wolf