monstrous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French monstreux, earlier Old French monstereux, recorded from the 13th century,^[2][3][4] or directly borrowed from Latin mōnstrōsus (“portentous, unnatural, strange”),^[3][5][2] formed from mōnstrum (“portent, monster”), the source of monster, and -ōsus.^[2][6][4] It followed the earlier monstruous, recorded from about 1425,^[2][7][8] which comes from Old French monstruos and directly from Latin mōnstruōsus, a variant of the same Latin adjective;^[2][7][8][6] the OED notes that monstruous was still very common in the 16th century.^[8] Mōnstrum comes from the root of moneō (“to warn, remind, advise”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[8] The OED compares Italian mostroso and Spanish monstroso.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a thing, departing from the natural or usual order; unnatural, extraordinary: before 1464, in John Capgrave's Abbreuiacion of Cronicles.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid 15th century, in the senses "of unnatural formation, hideous".^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word soon also meant like a monster, hideous or frightening (before 1475, in Lydgate),^[2] and in the early 16th century gigantic or enormous, about 1500 in Etymonline and in Dunbar in the OED.^[8][2] From the 1530s it was used of malformed people, animals and plants (1530, in Tyndale's Bible) and of inhuman wickedness (1531, in Elyot),^[2] and soon after of anything outrageously wrong or absurd, a use Etymonline dates to the 1570s.^[2][8] The OED notes that the sense of wickedness is often only an exaggeration in later use.^[2] The adverb "exceedingly, very" is recorded from 1569,^[2][9] and Etymonline notes that by the late 19th century it was felt to be vulgar or colloquial;^[8] it is now archaic or regional.^[2][9] The old sense "strange, unnatural" went out of use in the 18th century;^[2][3] Johnson (1755) still put "deviating from the stated order of nature" first.^[10] The Oxford Dictionary of English dates the current senses from the 16th century.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – the earlier form monstruous, in Lydgate's Troy Book.^[2][7]
• before 1464 – unnatural, extraordinary (obsolete by 1736).^[2]
• before 1475 – like a monster; hideous or frightening.^[2]
• c. 1500 – enormous, gigantic.^[8][2]
• 1530 – malformed, deformed.^[2]
• 1531 – inhumanly wicked, atrocious.^[2]
• 1569 – adverb, exceedingly, very.^[2][9]
• 1570s – outrageously wrong, shocking.^[8]
• 1638 – full of monsters, in Milton's Lycidas (obsolete by 1818).^[2]
• 1711 – colloquial intensifier, very great, in Swift.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Extremely large; enormous, gigantic: A monstrous wave swept over the deck.^[11][9][2]
2. Shockingly wrong, cruel or unjust; atrocious, outrageous: It is monstrous that the children were left without food.^[11][2]
3. Like a monster; hideous or frightening.^[11][2]
4. Of a plant, animal or body part: abnormal in form or structure; deformed.^[11][2]
5. (obsolete, 1464–1736) Strange or unnatural.^[2][9][3]

Adverb

1. (archaic or regional) Exceedingly, very.^[2][9]

Word family

• monstrously
• monstrousness

Related words

• monster
• monstrosity
• demonstrate
• admonish
• monitor

References

1. ^ a b 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 v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins