Etymologically
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hideous

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈhɪd.i.əs/, /ˈhɪd͡ʒəs/[1]

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
  • 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