terrify

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin terrificō (“to frighten, alarm”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from terrificus (“causing terror”),^[2][3][5] formed from terreō (“to frighten”) and -ficus,^[4] from faciō (“to make”).^[6][7] The OED compares Middle French terrifier, recorded from 1558 and rare before the late 18th century, and the rare Italian terrificare, recorded before 1512;^[2] Weekley took the English verb from French.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make very afraid, to fill with terror: 1536, in Richard Taverner's translation of Melanchthon.^[2] The revised OED entry is earlier than Barnhart's 1575,^[5] Etymonline's 1570s^[3] and the late 16th century of the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English,^[9][10] while Merriam-Webster gives the 15th century.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense of frightening someone into or out of a place or course of action is recorded from 1575.^[2] Milton used the verb in 1642 for "to irritate, to worry",^[2] and that weaker sense lived on in regional English: the English Dialect Dictionary records it from Lincolnshire and Leicestershire to Devon and Cornwall for annoying, teasing or tormenting, in forms such as tarrify and torrify.^[12] In 1644 Milton also used it once for "to make terrible".^[2][9] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as to fright, to shock with fear, and to make afraid, and he drew it from Latin words for "terror" and "to make".^[13] Etymonline dates the derivative terrification to the 1610s, and notes that terriblize, to become terrible, about 1600, did not survive.^[3]

Timeline

• 1536 – to fill with terror.^[2]
• 1575 – to frighten someone from or into a place or course of action.^[2]
• 1642 – to irritate, worry or harass.^[2]
• 1644 – to make terrible (obsolete and rare).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fill with terror; to frighten greatly: Thunder terrifies the old dog.^[7][11][2]
2. To drive or force by menace: The threats terrified the clerk into opening the safe.^[11][2]
3. To deter or intimidate.^[11]
4. (British dialect) To annoy, tease or harass.^[12][11][2]
5. (obsolete, 1644) To make terrible.^[2][9]

Word family

• terrifier
• terrifyingly

Related words

• terrible
• terrific
• terrifying
• terror
• terrorist
• terrorize

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.