hideous

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hidous, also hydus,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman hidous,^[2][5][3] corresponding to Old French hidos or hideus, earlier (11th century) hisdos,^[2][6] from hisde (“horror, fear”), also hide.^[2][3][7] The modern French form is hideux.^[2][6] The ending was changed to -eous after words such as courteous and piteous: in the 16th century according to the OED and Hoad,^[2][7] before 1400 according to Barnhart.^[3] The origin of the French noun is uncertain.^[2][8][9] The American Heritage Dictionary thinks it probably an alteration, with an expressive h-, of Frankish *egisida (“fright”),^[10] from Proto-West Germanic *agisōn (“to frighten”),^[10][11] from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, fear”), the source also of Old English egesa (“fear, dread”) and Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (agis, “fear”).^[11] An older view derived the adjective from Vulgar Latin *hispidōsus, from Latin hispidus (“rough, shaggy, bristly”), making the noun a back-formation;^{[2][12][13][14][15]} the OED finds that this "presents numerous difficulties", and Etymonline calls it generally discredited.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Frightful, dreadful, horrible: 1303, as hydus in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[2][3] The Anglo-Norman adjective, recorded from 1160–74, meant terrifying, horrible and also wicked or ugly.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that in the original sense the idea was of causing dread or horror;^[2] the sense "repulsive to see" developed from it in the late 14th century, according to Etymonline.^[6] The Middle English Dictionary finds the senses "terrifying", "hideous to see or hear" and "morally loathsome" often hard to tell apart.^[4] From about 1330 it could also mean monstrously large, a sense now rare or obsolete,^[2][5] and morally revolting, abominable.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as horrible, dreadful, shocking.^[17] In colloquial use it can now mean merely unpleasant or displeasing.^[5] An adverb hideous, hideously, was used from 1667 to 1705.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1303 – frightful, horrible, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[2][3]
• c. 1330 – monstrously large; morally abominable.^[2]
• late 14th century – repulsive to look at.^[6]
• c. 1420 – noun, a frightful person or thing.^[2][4]
• 1667 – adverb, hideously (to 1705).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Extremely ugly; repulsive to look at: a hideous mask.^[8][18][2]
2. Morally shocking or revolting; horrible: a hideous crime.^[18][2][8]
3. (colloquial) Very unpleasant.^[5]
4. (rare or obsolete) Frighteningly large; immense.^[2][5]

Word family

• hideosity
• hideously
• hideousness
• unhideous

Related words

• hispid
• hirsute

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster