different between horrifying vs gruesome

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

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