different between horrible vs desperate

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

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?sp?r?tus, past participle of d?sp?r? (“to be without hope”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?sp(?)??t/

Adjective

desperate (comparative more desperate, superlative most desperate)

1. In dire need of something.

   I hadn't eaten in two days and was desperate for food.

2. Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.

3. Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.

4. Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.

5. Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
6. Extremely intense.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Noun

desperate (plural desperates)

1. A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-outer, addict, etc.

Derived terms

• desperation

Related terms

• despair
• desperado

Translations

Anagrams

• departees

Danish

Adjective

desperate

1. plural and definite singular attributive of desperat

Latin

Verb

d?sp?r?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of d?sp?r?

References

• desperate in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• desperate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

desperate

1. definite singular of desperat
2. plural of desperat

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

desperate

1. definite singular of desperat
2. plural of desperat