different between gruesome vs repulsive

English

Etymology

From grue (“to shudder”) +? -some. Compare Danish and Norwegian grusom (“horrible”), German grausam (“cruel”), and Dutch gruwzaam (“gruesome; cruel”).

Adjective

gruesome (comparative gruesomer or more gruesome, superlative gruesomest or most gruesome)

1. Repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly.
   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6

     In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing. Upon the bed lay a similar gruesome thing, but smaller, while in a tiny cradle near-by was a third, a wee mite of a skeleton.

Translations

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French repulsif, from Medieval Latin repulsivus, from Latin repulsus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???p?ls?v/
• enPR: /r?-p?l's?v/, /r?-p?l's?v/

Adjective

repulsive (comparative more repulsive, superlative most repulsive)

1. tending to rouse aversion or to repulse
2. (physics) having the capacity to repel
3. cold, reserved, forbidding

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "repulsive" is often applied: force, interaction, potential.

Synonyms

• repellent
• similar: disgusting, vile

Antonyms

• (tending to rouse aversion) attractive
• (physics, having the capacity to repel) attractive

Translations

Anagrams

• prelusive, pulverise

Italian

Adjective

repulsive

1. feminine plural of repulsivo