different between terrific vs grisly

English

Alternative forms

• terrifick (obsolete)

Etymology

From French terrifique, and its source, Latin terrificus (“terrifying”), from terrere (“to frighten, terrify”) + -ficus, from facere (“to make”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t????f?k/
• Rhymes: -?f?k

Adjective

terrific (comparative more terrific, superlative most terrific)

1. (now rare) Terrifying, causing terror; terrible; sublime, awe-inspiring. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:frightening

   • 1796–7, Mary Wollstonecraft, The Wrongs of Woman, Oxford 2009, p. 83:

     [T]he dismal shrieks of demoniac rage […] roused phantoms of horror in her mind, far more terrific than all that dreaming superstition ever drew.

   • 1821, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer, volume 2, page 154:

     Think of wandering amid sepulchral ruins, of stumbling over the bones of the dead, of encountering what I cannot describe,—the horror of being among those who are neither the living or the dead;—those dark and shadowless things that sport themselves with the reliques of the dead, and feast and love amid corruption,—ghastly, mocking, and terrific.
2. Very strong or intense; excessive, tremendous. [from 18th c.]

   The car came round the bend at a terrific speed.

   I've got a terrific hangover this morning.
3. Extremely good; excellent, amazing. [from 19th c.]

   I say! She's a terrific tennis player.

Synonyms

• brilliant
• horrific

Related terms

• terrible
• terrify
• terrifying
• terror
• terrorist
• terrorize

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• ferritic

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /????zli/
• Homophone: grizzly
• Hyphenation: gris?ly

Etymology 1

From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissli?, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisli? (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from gr?san (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattested but implied in ?gr?san) + -lic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’).

The word may also be an aphetic form of Old English ongrislic, agrisenli?, the past participle of agr?san (“to agrise”).

Compare Danish grusom, Swedish gräslig, Middle Dutch grezelijc (modern Dutch griezelig), Middle High German grisenlich (modern German grässlich, grausen).

Adjective

grisly (comparative grislier, superlative grisliest)

1. Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) grisy, gristly, (misspellings) grizzly; see also Thesaurus:frightening
2. Misspelling of gristly.
3. Misspelling of grizzly.

Usage notes

Not to be confused with gristly or grizzly.

Alternative forms

• griesly, grislie (obsolete)

Derived terms

• grislily
• grisliness
• ungrisly

Related terms

• grise

Translations

Etymology 2

From grisle (“horror, terror”) +? -ly; compare Middle Dutch griselike, Middle Low German grislike.

Adverb

grisly (comparative more grisly, superlative most grisly)

1. (obsolete) In a horrible or terrible manner; in a terrifying way.

Synonyms

• grimly
• horribly
• terribly

References