different between mammoth vs gruesome

English

Etymology

From obsolete Russian ??????? (mámant), modern ??????? (mámont), probably from a Uralic language, such as Proto-Mansi *m???-o?t (“earth-horn”). Compare Northern Mansi ??? (m?, “earth”), ????? (?n?t, “horn”). Adjectival use was popularized in the early 1800s by references to the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese presented to American paleontologist and president Thomas Jefferson.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mæm??/

Noun

mammoth (plural mammoths)

1. Any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, of large, usually hairy, elephant-like mammals with long curved tusks and an inclined back, which became extinct with the last retreat of ice age glaciers during the late Pleistocene period, and are known from fossils, frozen carcasses, and Paleolithic cave paintings found in North America and Eurasia.
2. (obsolete) A mastodon.
3. (figuratively) Something very large of its kind.
   • 1973, Jeffrey Potter, Disaster by Oil (page 46)

     That is a lot of ship, about the the size of big tankers before they grew so rapidly to become supers, mammoths and oilbergs.

Translations

Descendants

• ? Arabic: ???????? (m?m??)
• ? Hebrew: ????????? (mamúta)
• ? Hindi: ???? (maimath)
• ? Japanese: ???? (manmosu)
• ? Khmer: ???????? (maammout)
• ? Korean: ??? (maemeodeu)
• ? Thai: ?????? (m?m-m???t)

Adjective

mammoth (comparative more mammoth, superlative most mammoth)

1. Comparable to a mammoth in its size; very large, huge, gigantic.
   • 1898, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, in Fables for the Frivolous (With Apologies to La Fontaine),

     “Ha! ha!” he proudly cried, “a fig / For this, your mammoth torso! / Just watch me while I grow as big / As you—or even more so!”

   • 1999, Albert Isaac Slomovitz, The Fighting Rabbis: Jewish Military Chaplains and American History, New York University Press, page 103.

Synonyms

• (very large): colossal, enormous, gigantic, huge, titanic
• See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• mammoth on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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