different between giant vs hideous

English

Alternative forms

• giaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English geaunt, geant, from Old French geant, gaiant (Modern French géant) from Vulgar Latin *gag?s, gagant-, from Latin gig?s, gigant-, from Ancient Greek ????? (gígas, “giant”) Cognate to giga- (“1,000,000,000”).

Displaced native Middle English eten, ettin (from Old English ?oten), and Middle English eont (from Old English ent).

Compare Modern English ent (“giant tree-man”) and Old English þyrs (“giant, monster, demon”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?a?.?nt/
  • (dialectal, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?d?a?nt/
• Rhymes: -a??nt
• Hyphenation: gi?ant

Noun

giant (plural giants)

1. A mythical human of very great size.
2. (mythology) Specifically:
   1. Any of the gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
   2. A jotun.
3. A very tall and large person.
4. A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
5. (astronomy) A star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature (e.g. red giant, blue giant).
6. (computing) An Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
7. A very large organisation.
8. A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.
   • 1988, Thomas Dolby, "Airhead":

     she's not the intellectual giant

Synonyms

See also: Thesaurus:giant

Translations

Adjective

giant (not comparable)

1. Very large.

Synonyms

• colossal, enormous, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast
• See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Antonyms

• dwarf
• midget

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• TA'ing, TAing, Taing, anti-g, tagin, tangi, tiang, tinga

English

Etymology

From Middle English hidous, from Anglo-Norman hidous, from Old French hideus, hydus (“that which inspires terror”), from earlier hisdos, from Old French hisda (“horror, fear”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Probably from Proto-West Germanic *agisiþu (“horror, terror”), from Proto-West Germanic *agis?n (“to frighten, terrorise”), from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, fear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?eg?- (“to frighten”). Cognate with Old High German egisa, egid? (“horror”), Old English egesa (“fear, dread”), Gothic ???????????????? (agis, “fear, terror”).

Alternative etymology cites possible derivation from Latin hispidosus (“rugged”), from hispidus (“rough, bristly”), yet the semantic evolution is less plausible.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?h?d.i?.?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?h?d.i.?s/

Adjective

hideous (comparative more hideous, superlative most hideous)

1. Extremely or shockingly ugly.
   • Thomas Babington Macaulay.

   A piteous and hideous spectacle.

2. Having a very unpleasant or frightening sound
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     He started up, growling at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard.

3. Hateful; shocking.
4. Morally offensive; shocking; detestable.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "hideous" is often applied: monster, creature, man, woman, face, thing, crime, form, death, aspect, spectacle, picture, roar, sound, manner, way, disease, mistake, shape, dress, fact, act, smile.

Synonyms

• frightful, ghastly, grim, grisly, grotesque, horrid, dreadful, terrible

Derived terms

• hideosity
• hideously
• hideousness

Translations

Middle English

Adjective

hideous

1. Alternative form of hidous (“terrifying”)