different between horrifying vs grim

English

Verb

horrifying

1. present participle of horrify

Adjective

horrifying (comparative more horrifying, superlative most horrifying)

1. Tending to inspire horror; that horrifies; horrific.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:frightening

   • 2009: Stuart Heritage, Hecklerspray, Friday the 22^nd of May in 2009 at 1 o’clock p.m., “Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About”

     Jon & Kate Plus 8 is a show based on two facts: 1) Jon and Kate Gosselin have eight children, and 2) the word ‘Kate’ rhymes with the word ‘eight’. One suspects that if Kate were ever to have another child, a shady network executive would urge her to put it in a binbag with a brick and drop it down a well. But this is just a horrifying tangent.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???m/
• Rhymes: -?m

Etymology 1

From Middle English grim, from Old English grim, grimm, from Proto-West Germanic *grimm, from Proto-Germanic *grimmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *g?rem- (“to resound, thunder, grumble, roar”). Noun sense derives from adjective, from 1620s.

Adjective

grim (comparative grimmer, superlative grimmest)

1. dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding

   Life was grim in many northern industrial towns.
2. rigid and unrelenting

   His grim determination enabled him to win.

3. ghastly or sinister

   A grim castle overshadowed the village.

   • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club:

     In movie terms, it suggests Paul Verhoeven in Robocop/Starship Troopers mode, an R-rated bloodbath where the grim spectacle of children murdering each other on television is bread-and-circuses for the age of reality TV, enforced by a totalitarian regime to keep the masses at bay.

4. disgusting; gross

   - Wanna see the dead rat I found in my fridge?
   - Mate, that is grim!

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

grim (plural grims)

1. (obsolete) specter, ghost, haunting spirit

Verb

grim (third-person singular simple present grims, present participle grimming, simple past and past participle grimmed)

1. (transitive, rare) To make grim; to give a stern or forbidding aspect to.

Etymology 2

From Middle English grim, grym, greme, from Old English *grimu, *grimmu, from Proto-Germanic *grimm?? (“anger, wrath”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?rem- (“to resound, thunder, grumble, roar”). Cognate with Middle Dutch grimme, Middle High German grimme f (“anger”), modern German Grimm m.

Noun

grim (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Anger, wrath.

Derived terms

• grimful
• grimless

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [????m?]

Etymology

From Old Norse grimmr, from Proto-Germanic *grimmaz.

Adjective

grim

1. ugly, unsightly
2. nasty

Inflection

Kalasha

Verb

grim

1. taking

Old English

Alternative forms

• grimm

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *grimm.

Cognate with Old Saxon grim, Old High German grim (German grimm, grimmig), Old Norse grimmr (Danish grim, Swedish grym); and with Greek ??????? (chremízo), Old Church Slavonic ??????? (gr?m?ti) (Russian ???????? (gremét?)), Latvian gremt.

Perhaps related in Old Norse to veiled or hooded, Grim is also an alternate name for Odin, who often went around disguised; compare the hooded appearance of The Grim Reaper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rim/

Adjective

grim

1. fierce, severe, terrible, savage, cruel, angry

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: grim
  • Scots: grim
  • English: grim