horror

Forms

horror m (plural horrores)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin horror (“bristling of the hair; shuddering; dread”), a learned word first recorded at the end of the 17th century.^[2][3][1][4] The Latin noun is formed from horreō (“to bristle, shudder”) with the suffix -or.^[5][1]

The same Latin word was taken into Spanish horror, French horreur and Italian orrore.^[6][1] In Spanish too it is a learned word, first recorded in 1574.^[7] French borrowed it much earlier, in the 12th century.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is of 1696–1697.^[2] Pereira's Thesouro of 1697 enters Horror with its Latin equivalent, and Bluteau's book of synonyms gives pavor and tremor.^[9][10] The first sense is a shuddering dread.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1813) gives three senses: a shivering of the body from fever, great fear of something terrible, and great aversion to a person or thing.^[11] Vieira (1871) quotes the moralist Manuel Bernardes on the horror the Virgin would feel at a single moment out of God's grace.^[12] From the feeling the word passed to its cause: um horror is something dreadful, a barbaric crime or an unbearable suffering.^[13][14]

Popular speech made horrores and um horror de into words for “a great quantity”.^[13][15] Clipped to ror, the word gave um ror de “a great many”, which the REW already noted in popular Portuguese.^[16][17][6]

Timeline

• 1562 – Cardoso's Latin–Portuguese dictionary glosses Latin horror as arrepiamento “bristling”.^[18]
• 1696–1697 – first record of the Portuguese word.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro enters Horror.^[9]
• 17th century – first records of horrível and horroroso.^[3]
• 1755 – Folqman lists the phrases causar horror and ter horror a alguma cousa.^[19]
• 1759 – horrores in a private letter.^[20]
• 1813 – Morais's dictionary gives three senses; first record of horrorizar.^[11][3]
• 1899 – first record of horrorífico.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong feeling of fear and repulsion, often with shuddering: gritou de horror.^[2][13][1]
2. aversion, disgust or hatred: tem horror a mentiras.^[2][13][15]
3. A deep unease or fear of something; a phobia.^[2][13]
4. The quality of what inspires fear or aversion, or of what is atrocious.^[2][14]
5. Something horrible or very ugly; a barbaric crime; an atrocious suffering.^[13][15][14]
6. (informal, often in the plural) A great quantity (quantidade): gastou horrores.^[13][15][14]
7. (philosophy, historical) The supposed aversion of nature to a vacuum (vácuo).^[15]

Word family

• horrorizar
• horroroso
• horrorífico
• ror

Related words

• horrível
• horrendo
• hórrido
• horripilar
• Latin horror

Usage notes

Santo horror is a reverent awe before sacred things.^[13] The word is pronounced with a closed /o/ in the second syllable.^[2][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. horror
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. horror
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. horror
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. horror
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4190
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 399
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. horreur
9. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. horror
10. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. horror
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 120
12. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 988
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. horror
14. ^ a b c d Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. horror
15. ^ a b c d e Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. horror
16. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ror
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ror
18. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1562), Dictionarium juventuti studiosae admodum frugiferum, Coimbra: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. horror
19. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. horror
20. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. horror