horrible

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English horrible, also orrible,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French horrible, also orrible,^[4][5][6][7] from Latin horribilis (“terrible, fearful, dreadful”),^[5][8][9] from horreō (“to bristle, tremble, shudder”) and the suffix that gives English -ible.^[3][9][6] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ghers- (“to bristle”).^[5] The Old French word is recorded from the 12th century,^[4][5] and Anglo-Norman horible from 1121–25.^[10] The Latin adjective also gave Spanish horrible and Italian orribile.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Causing horror; dreadful, frightful: 1303, in R. Mannyng's Handlyng Synne,^[4] about 1300 in Etymonline.^[5] Barnhart dates orible in Arthour and Merlin probably before 1300,^[9] from a manuscript the MED dates c. 1330.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb behind it was used of hair standing on end, and because fear makes hair bristle it came to mean to tremble and to be filled with fear and revulsion, the meaning carried into English.^[11] In Middle English the adjective ranged from frightful and hideous to morally heinous and even to awe-inspiring,^[2] and it was a word of Chaucer (39 times) and Gower (7).^[12] Horrible and horror were usually spelled without h- in Middle English;^[13] the modern spelling appears about 1375, in Chaucer.^[9] By the 15th century it had also become a mere intensifier, of excess or immoderation, often without any bad sense,^[4][5] and the adverbial use, "exceedingly", is as old.^[4][3] Johnson (1755) still glossed it as dreadful, terrible, shocking and hideous.^[14] Modern dictionaries also give a weaker sense, "very unpleasant",^[15][3] and Collins labels "cruel, unkind" as informal.^[15] As a noun it has meant a horrible person or thing, specifically someone in a grotesque costume for a parade.^[3] Slang added an Australian horrible, a rascal or bohemian, placed by Partridge at about 1925–55, and an American campus use for an unattractive woman, 1967–8.^[16]

Timeline

• 1303 – causing horror, dreadful.^[4] Barnhart dates orible probably before 1300.^[9]
• c. 1375 – the spelling horrible, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.^[9]
• c. 1425 – adverb, horribly, exceedingly.^[4][6]
• before 1464 – intensive, excessive, immoderate.^[4][5]
• c. 1540 – noun, a horrible person or thing.^[4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing horror; dreadful, hideous or shocking: a horrible accident on the mountain road.^[15][3][4]
2. Very unpleasant or disagreeable: The coffee at the station tastes horrible.^[15][3][6]
3. (informal) Cruel or unkind: He was horrible to his sister.^[15]
4. Excessive, immoderate: a mere intensifier.^[4][5]

Noun

1. A horrible person or thing; in the plural, people in grotesque costume for a parade.^[3][4][6]

Adverb

1. (rare) To an extreme degree; horribly.^[3][4][6]

Word family

• horribleness
• horribly

Related words

• horrific
• horrify
• horror
• horrendous
• horrid
• abhor
• ordure
• gorse

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com