Etymograph

English

horrendous

Horrendous comes from Latin horrendus ‘horrible, horrendous, horrific, horrid,…’, and goes back to horreō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhorreō1‘to dread’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhorrendus1‘horrible, horrendous, horrific, horrid, dreadful, dreaded, frightful, awful’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2012horrendous1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English horrendous
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2012, William E. Carter, The British Longitude Act Reconsid ered: “But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhorreōWiktionary, English horrendous‘to dread’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhorrendusWiktionary, English horrendous‘horrible, horrendous, horrific, horrid, dreadful, dreaded, frightful, awful’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2012horrendousWiktionary, English horrendous. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2012, William E. Carter, The British Longitude Act Reconsid ered: “But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude…”

Formed from -ous

Linked words

through Latin horreō ‘to dread’

horror, horrific, horrid, abhor, horrify, 5 more

Today it means

adj Extremely bad; awful; terrible.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “horrendous”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin horreō / horrendous

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