Etymograph

English

ugly

Ugly comes from Old Norse uggligr ‘fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance’, and goes back to uggr.

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350uggr1‘fear’
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350uggligr1‘fearful’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ugly1
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1590ugly1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English ugly
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto IX: “the ugly view of his deformed crimes”.

Lineage

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350uggrWiktionary, English ugly‘fear’
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350uggligrWiktionary, English ugly‘fearful’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500uglyWiktionary, English ugly
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1590uglyWiktionary, English ugly. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto IX: “the ugly view of his deformed crimes”

The story

Inherited from Middle English ugly, uggely, uglike, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (‘fearful, dreadful, horrible in appearance’), from uggr (‘fear, apprehension, dread’) (possibly related to agg (‘strife, hate’)), equivalent to ug + -ly. Meaning softened to "very unpleasant to look at" around the late 14th century, and sense of "morally offensive" attested from around 1300. For the meaning development compare Bulgarian грозен (grozen) (< Proto-Slavic *grozьnъ), Russian стра́шный (strášnyj) (< Proto-Slavic *strašьnъ < *straxъ); Latin foedus (< Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂-).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with ugly, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- ‘to be upset, afraid’

  • ail ← eilen ← eġlan ← *aglijan ← *aglijaną

through Proto-Germanic *agaz ‘fear, dread’

  • awe ← aw ← agi ← *agô

through Old Norse uggr ‘fear, apprehension, dread’

  • ug ← ugge

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Today it means

adj Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “ugly”. 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 / Old Norse uggr / ugly