different between giant vs horrible

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

First attested in Middle English (alternately as horrible and orrible) in 1303: from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis, from horr(?re) (“tremble”) + -ibilis (“-ible”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h???b?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?h???b?l/, /?h???b?l/, [-b??]
• (NYC, Philadelphia, Ireland) IPA^(key): /?h???b?l/

Noun

horrible (plural horribles)

1. A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick

     Here's a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles!

   • 1982, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate

     A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by the people objecting to this convention ignore the plain language of this treaty.

   • 1991, Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey

     The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles.

   • 2000, John Dean, CNN interview, January 21, 2000:

     I'm trying to convince him that the criminal behavior that's going on at the White House has to end. And I give him one horrible after the next. I just keep raising them. He sort of swats them away.

   • 2001, Neil K. Komesar, Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights

     Many scholars have demonstrated these horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions.

2. A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.

Translations

Adjective

horrible (comparative horribler or more horrible, superlative horriblest or most horrible)

1. Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
2. Tremendously bad.
   • 2010, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010, page 599:

     Having now absorbed all or parts of 750 responses to my complaints about Transformers, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that most of those writing agree with me that it is a horrible movie.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:frightening
• See Thesaurus:bad

Related terms

• horrific
• horrify
• horror
• horrendous

Translations

References

Asturian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible (epicene, plural horribles)

1. horrible

Related terms

• horror

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /u?ri.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /o?ri.ble/

Adjective

horrible (masculine and feminine plural horribles)

1. horrible

Derived terms

• horriblement

Related terms

• horror

French

Etymology

From Old French horrible, orrible, orible, borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Pronunciation

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /?.?ibl/

Adjective

horrible (plural horribles)

1. horrible; causing horror.

Related terms

• horreur

Further reading

• “horrible” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Galician

Alternative forms

• horríbel

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible m or f (plural horribles)

1. horrible

Derived terms

• horriblemente

Related terms

• horror

Middle English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible

1. horrible

Descendants

• English: horrible

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible (plural horribles)

1. horrible

Derived terms

• horriblemente

Related terms

• horror