different between horrid vs utter

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horridus (“rough, bristly, savage, shaggy, rude”), from horrere (“to bristle”). See horrent, horror, ordure.

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

horrid (comparative horrider or more horrid, superlative horridest or most horrid)

1. (archaic) Bristling, rough, rugged.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen, I-vii-31, 2007, A. C. Hamilton (editor), Spenser: The Faerie Qveene, Revised 2nd Edition, page 98,

     His haughtie Helmet, horrid all with gold, // Both glorious brightnesse and great terror bredd.

   • 1637, John Milton, Comus (A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634), 1852, Henry John Todd (editor), The Poetical Works of John Milton, Volume 4, 5th Edition, page 113,

     Yea there, where very Desolation dwells, / By grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid shades, / She may pass on with unblench'd majesty, / Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.

   • 1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Aeneis, Book IX, 1779, The Works of the English Poets, Volume 18: Dryden's Virgil: Volume II, page 248,

     Horrid with fern, and intricate with thorn, / Few paths of human feet, or tracks of beasts, were worn.

2. Causing horror or dread.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:frightening

   • 1606 William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth, IV-iii, 1843, The Works of Shakespere, Volume 2: Tragedies, unnumbered page,

     Not in the legions / Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damned / In evils, to top Macbeth.

   • 1611 William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain, IV-ii, 1821, The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare, Volume V, page 369,

     Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood, / that we the horrider may seem to those / Which chance to find us;

   • 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, The Sea Voyage, V-iv, 1866, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Volume 2, page 327,

     Set out the altar! I myself will be / The priest, and boldly do those horrid rites / You shake to think on.

   • 1885 Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien, 1870, The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate, page 166,

     What say ye then to fair Sir Percivale, / And of the horrid foulness that he wrought,

3. Offensive, disagreeable, abominable, execrable.
   • 1668 October 23, Samuel Pepys, Diary, 1858, Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, F.R.S., Volume 4, 6th Edition, page 39,

     My Lord Chief Justice Keeling hath laid the constable by the heels to answer it next Sessions: which is a horrid shame.

   • 1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto IV, 1836, The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., page 68,

     Methinks already I your tears survey, / Already hear the horrid things they say,

Usage notes

• According to OED, horrid and horrible were originally almost synonymous, but in modern use horrid is somewhat less strong and tending towards the "offensive, disagreeable" sense.

Synonyms

• abominable
• alarming
• appalling
• awful
• dire
• dreadful
• frightful
• harrowing
• hideous
• horrible
• revolting
• shocking
• terrific

Translations

References

• horrid in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• horrid in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??t?/, [??t?]
• (US) IPA^(key): /??t?/, [????]
• Rhymes: -?t?(?)

Etymology 1

From Old English ?tera, comparative of ?t (“out”). Compare outer.

Adjective

utter (not comparable)

1. (now poetic, literary) Outer; furthest out, most remote. [from 10th c.]
2. (obsolete) Outward. [13th–16th c.]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew XXIII:

     Wo be to you scrybes and pharises ypocrites, for ye make clene the utter side off the cuppe, and off the platter: but within they are full of brybery and excesse.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.10:

     So forth without impediment I past, / Till to the Bridges utter gate I came […] .

3. Absolute, unconditional, total, complete. [from 15th c.]

   utter ruin; utter darkness

   • 1708, Francis Atterbury, Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions : Preface

     They […] are utter strangers to all those anxious […] thoughts which […] disquiet mankind.

Synonyms

• see also Thesaurus:total

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Partly from out (adverb, verb), partly from Middle Dutch uteren.

Verb

utter (third-person singular simple present utters, present participle uttering, simple past and past participle uttered)

1. (transitive) To produce (speech or other sounds) with one's voice.

   Synonyms: let out, say, speak

   Don't you utter another word!

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 1.20,^[2]

     Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, London: J. Osborn, Volume 2, Chapter 50, p. 156,^[3]

     […] he made no other reply, for some time, than lifting up his eyes, clasping his hands, and uttering a hollow groan.

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Boston: Roberts Brothers, Volume 1, Chapter 17, p. 263,^[4]

     […] Laurie slyly pulled the parrot’s tail, which caused Polly to utter an astonished croak,
2. (transitive) To reveal or express (an idea, thought, desire, etc.) with speech.

   Synonyms: declare, say, tell

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica, London, p. 35,^[5]

     Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 6, p. 77,^[6]

     […] tho’ a few odd Fellows will utter their own Sentiments in all Places, yet much the greater Part of Mankind have enough of the Courtier to accommodate their Conversation to the Taste and Inclination of their Superiors.

   • 1871, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Volume 4, Part 2, Book 8, Chapter 83, p. 323,^[7]

     Each had been full of thoughts which neither of them could begin to utter.

   • 1959, Muriel Spark, Memento Mori, New York: Time, 1964, Chapter , p. 213,^[8]

     “Your master,” he declared, “has uttered a damnable lie about a dead friend of mine.”

   • 1995, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Part 11, p. 528,^[9]

     “Don’t worry about me,” he uttered with minimum lip movement.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To produce (a noise) (of an inanimate object).

   Synonyms: emit, let out

   Sally's car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To spit or blow (something) out of one's mouth.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, “Rip van Winkle” in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., London: John Murray, 3rd ed., 1820, Volume 1, p. 79,^[10]

     He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco smoke instead of idle speeches;

   • 1821, Charles Lamb, “The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple” in The London Magazine, Volume 4, No. 21, September 1821, p. 280,^[11]

     Four little winged marble boys used to play their virgin fancies, spouting out ever fresh streams from their innocent-wanton lips, in the square of Lincoln’s-inn […] Are the stiff-wigged living figures, that still flitter and chatter about that area, less gothic in appearance? or, is the splutter of their hot rhetoric one half so refreshing and innocent, as the little cool playful streams those exploded cherubs uttered?

5. (transitive, obsolete) To emit or give off (breath).
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV, Scene 2,^[12]

     […] most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath;

   • 1629, William Davenant, The Tragedy of Albovine, King of the Lombards, London: R. Moore, Act I, Scene 1,^[13]

     […] now the King forsakes

     The Campe, he must maintaine luxurious mouthes,

     Such as can vtter perfum’d breath,

6. (transitive, archaic) To shed (a tear or tears).
   • 1615, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Cupid’s Revenge, London: Josias Harrison, Act V, Scene 1,^[14]

     […] weepe now or neuer, thou hast made more sorrowes then we haue eyes to vtter.

   • 1928, Robert Byron, The Station: Travels to the Holy Mountain of Greece, Bloomsbury, 2010, Chapter 6,^[15]

     […] a mythological matron, in a classical helmet, uttering a tear at a rustic cross bound in blue and white ribbons and inscribed TO THE FALLEN—1912,

7. (transitive, obsolete) To offer (something) for sale; to sell.
   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed's Chronicles, London: John Hunne, The History of Ireland,^[16]

     […] certayne Merchants […] obteyned licence safely to arriue here in Ireland with their wares, and to vtter the same.

   • c. 1594, Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Scene 1,^[17]

     Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua’s law

     Is death to any he that utters them.

   • 1605, Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, London: Henry Tomes, Book 2, p. 72,^[18]

     […] at the Olimpian games […] some cam as Merchants to vtter their commodities,

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 51,^[19]

     No infected Stuff [i.e. items made of cloth] to be uttered.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To put (currency) into circulation.

   Synonym: circulate

   • 1564, Proclamation of Elizabeth I of England dated November, 1564, London: Richard Jugge and John Cawood, 1565,^[20]

     […] there are […] forrayne peeces of golde, of the like quantitie and fashion (although of lesse value) lyke to an Englyshe Angell, brought hyther, and here vttered and payde for ten shyllynges of syluer, beyng for they lacke of wayght, and for the basenesse of the allay, not worth. vii. shillinges, to the great deceite and losse of the subiectes of this her Realme:

   • 1735, Jonathan Swift, Drapier’s Letters, Letter 3, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, Dublin: George Faulkner, Volume 4, p. 123,^[21]

     There is nothing remaining to preserve us from Ruin, but that the whole Kingdom should continue in a firm determinate Resolution never to receive or utter this FATAL Coin:

   • 1842, cited in Supplement to The Jurist, containing a Digest of All the Reported Cases […] published during the year 1842, p. 49,^[22]

     If two persons jointly prepare counterfeit coin, and then utter it in different shops, apart from each other, but in concert, and intending to share the proceeds, the utterings of each are the joint utterings of both, and they may be convicted jointly.

9. (transitive, obsolete) To show (something that has been hidden); to reveal the identity of (someone).
   • 1535, Miles Coverdale, Coverdale Bible, Genesis 45.1,^[23]

     […] there stode no man by him, whan Ioseph vttred him self vnto his brethren.

   • 1561, William Whittingham et al. (translators), Geneva Bible, Mark 3.12,^[24]

     And he [Jesus] sharpely rebuked them [the unclean spirits], to the end they shulde not vtter him.

10. (transitive, obsolete) To send or put (something) out.
    • 1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre [and] Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, Henry VI, year 37,^[25]

      As fier beyng enclosed in a strayte place, wil by force vtter his flamme […]

    • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, London: Hugh Singleton, “March,” Aegloga Tertia,^[26]

      Seest not thilke same Hawthorne studde,

      How bragly it beginnes to budde,

      And vtter his tender head?

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse otr, from Proto-Germanic *utraz, from Proto-Indo-European *udrós (“water-animal, otter”), from *wed- (“water”).

Noun

utter c

1. otter; a mammal of the family Mustelidae

Declension