terrific

Pronunciation

• IPA: /təˈɹɪf.ɪk/^[1]

Etymology

First recorded in 1667, in Milton,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin terrificus (“causing terror, frightful”),^[4][5] from terrēre “to frighten” + -ficus “making”,^[6][5] from facere “to make”,^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Causing terror; terrifying”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Like awful and terrible, the word weakened into an intensifier.^[3] By 1809 it meant “very great, severe”, as in a terrific headache,^[4][3] and by 1888, in an inverted colloquial sense, “excellent”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1667 – “causing terror, terrifying”.^[2][3]
• 1809 – intensive, “very great, severe, excessive”.^[4][3]
• 1888 – colloquially, “excellent”; the OED's first quotation is from 1930.^[4][3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Very good; excellent.^[6][2][5][1]
2. Very great or intense, as in terrific speed.^[2][5][1]
3. Causing terror; terrifying.^[6][2][5][1]

Word family

• terrifically
• terrificness

Related words

• terrible, terrify, terror

References

1. [1] [2] [3] [4] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. [1] [2] [3] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin