Etymologically
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horror

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈhɒr.ə/, US /ˈhɔːr.ɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English horer, orrour, borrowed from Old French orror, horreur, and directly from Latin horror (“a shaking, trembling; dread”),[2][3][4] from horrēre (“to bristle with fear, shudder”),[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *ghers- (“to bristle”), the source also of Sanskrit hárṣate “he shudders”.[2][3] The h in the spelling was restored after the Latin.[3] It is related to horrible, horrid, horrify and hirsute.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A feeling of disgust: the early 14th century in Etymonline, before 1325 in Barnhart.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

A painful emotion of loathing and fear, and also a thing that causes it, are from the late 14th century.[2][7] In a literal sense it was used of roughness (1382) and, from 1533, of shivering, especially as a symptom of disease.[7] Reverent fear or awe is from 1579.[7] The horrors, a fit of extreme depression, especially in delirium tremens, is from 1768.[7] The chamber of horrors was originally, in 1849, a gallery of criminals in Madame Tussaud's.[2] As a genre of film it is from 1934 in Etymonline, 1936 in MWU.[2][4]

Timeline

  • c. 1325 – a feeling of disgust.[3][2]
  • c. 1375 – loathing and fear.[7]
  • 1533 – shivering.[7]
  • 1768 – the horrors.[7]
  • 1849 – chamber of horrors.[2]
  • 1934 – a film genre.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Intense fear and disgust; terror.
  2. Strong dislike or loathing.
  3. Something that causes horror.
  4. (informal) A badly behaved person, especially a child.
  5. A genre of films and books meant to frighten: a horror film.

Word family

  • horror-struck
  • chamber of horrors
  • horror show
  • horror story
  • horrendous
  • horrible
  • horrid
  • horrific
  • horrify
  • abhor
  • hirsute

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press