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| January 31, 2011 |
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| Word of the Week--"terrific" | ||||||||||
| Definition--terrifying or frightful
or colloquially marvelous, excellent, or intense. | ||||||||||
| Discussion--Few words are antonyms
unto themselves. Terrific is one. Its original meaning reflects its
Latin roots. Terrific is an adjectival form of terror. Hence the
usage: "The earthquake was a terrific disaster." More frequently today we
would say: "The earthquake was terrifying."
In the 1800s and 1900s, terrific took on the opposite meaning of terrify. Hence the usage: "Grace is a terrific cook!" Presumably, rather than causing terror, the previous sentence means that Grace is a marvelous cook whose food we would all enjoy. Vestiges of the old meaning are seen in phrases such as: "Carl has a
terrific headache." From Carl's point of view, the headache is probably
neither marvelous nor terrifying, though the meaning is much closer to
original meaning of causing terror. | ||||||||||
| Etymology--The term terrific
is borrowed the Latin terrificus, meaning causing terror or fear.
The root is the Latin terrere, meaning to fill with fear.
The languages below lack a direct corollary to the English usage of terrific to mean marvelous or excellent. | ||||||||||
Foreign Translations for Terrific
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| The Romance languages below show the Latin roots of the meaning to cause terror. | ||||||||||
Foreign Translations for Terrify
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