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"When did "horrific" become a word?" Topic


14 Posts

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Personal logo John the OFM Supporting Member of TMP01 Feb 2013 1:17 p.m. PST

I hear it all the time on the News. Curiously, I never hear it in conversations.
It is one of those words, like "appalled" or "outraged", that are only spoken by someone who has a microphone in front of his/her face.

Lee Brilleaux Fezian01 Feb 2013 1:26 p.m. PST

I'm appalled and outraged that you should bring this up, John. I find the whole thing h -----

Oh, never mind.

Personal logo etotheipi Sponsoring Member of TMP01 Feb 2013 1:33 p.m. PST

According to the OED, 1653 …


1653 T. Urquhart tr. Rabelais 2nd Bk. Wks. xxxiv. 219 Now (my Masters) you have heard a beginning of the horrifick history.

1744 J. Thomson Autumn in Seasons (new ed.) 165 The huge Incumbrance of horrific Woods.

1799 J. West Tale of Times I. 5 The lover of the wonderful and the admirer of the horrific.

1817 S. T. Coleridge Biographia Literaria II. xxiii. 259 To add the horrific incidents.

1856 D. Masson Three Devils in Ess. 83 The horrific plays a much less important part in human experience than it once did.

1879 G. MacDonald Sir Gibbie I. xviii. 243 A thrill of horrific wonder and delight.

Personal logo John the OFM Supporting Member of TMP01 Feb 2013 1:46 p.m. PST

And the only time Mexican Jack Squint has a microphone in front of his face is after a bail hearing.

richarDISNEY01 Feb 2013 2:04 p.m. PST

Its in my desk dictionary…
beer

Streitax01 Feb 2013 2:38 p.m. PST

Obviously, GW has the trademark of copyright on all the good words, so they have to dredge up stuff like this to keep under budget. Could be worse, though, I'm sick of things like 'impactful player' and 'he collisioned them' and other verbifications of nouns and adjectifiers.

kyoteblue01 Feb 2013 5:31 p.m. PST

The horror…

kreoseus201 Feb 2013 5:54 p.m. PST

I use horrific all the time. As in "that traffic was feckin horrific".

jpattern201 Feb 2013 6:03 p.m. PST

You don't hear "gobsmacked" and "flabbergasted" nearly enough on the evening news.

jtkimmel01 Feb 2013 6:20 p.m. PST

I love hearing the Brit sports announcers describe a teams play as "shambolic".

kreoseus202 Feb 2013 3:37 a.m. PST

I thought shambolic was a male grooming product..

Ed Mohrmann02 Feb 2013 6:53 a.m. PST

Such a ginormous controversy over a mere word…

DesertScrb02 Feb 2013 8:58 a.m. PST

It's a perfectly cromulent word to me.

richarDISNEY04 Feb 2013 9:08 a.m. PST

Why make a kerfuffle out of this?
beer

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