Monday, October 19, 2009

Horrid

HORRID, adj. In English hideous, frightful, appalling. In Young-womanese, mildly objectionable.
There was a pretty girl.
In the terror and the whirl
Of the tempest of her passion she was torrid!
But when moderately moved
By what she disapproved
She said, with gentle censure, it was horrid.
2009 Update: Punishable by exclamation.

16 comments:

Minka said...

horrid, adj.

British for hitonious!

this goes out to Jamie Dawn!

Minka said...

“[Your] horrid image doth unfix my hair.”



LOL, that Shakespeare! Just hope he wasn't looking into a mirror and holding it up to the world! ;)

Danny Boy said...

Perfect!

Jim said...

Horrid -- Yeah, it's hard to figure those pretty girls out. I think you summarized it good, they can exclaim and exclaim and exclaim some more.
Sometimes we'd better duck!
..

k. riggs gardner said...

I'm horridly busy today!

word verifier: houred ... please schedule an appointment for next comment.

Unknown said...

Horrid: Everyone featured in Dickipedia.

TLP said...

Horrid: mildly objectionable in Valley Girl speak.

pia said...

Crossing from Bierce to Pascover was not a horrid turn in the road!

quilly said...

HORRID etymology: This word first appeared in the Eastern U.S. as street slang. It was coined in the early 1700's and originally came into being as a noun.

Fisherman would come ashore after lengthy periods at sea and respectable ladies would clear the streets. If a particularly filthy, rancid-smelling, or disgusting sailor came shore even the less respectable ladies cleared the streets. Thus he was said to be a HORRID.

Etymology According to Quilly, 2009

quilly said...

What?! YOU picked the word. I'm innocent.

weirsdo said...

I bet Bierce's girl cultivated a single curl in the middle of her forehead.

Cooper said...

weirsdo's nursery rhyme is the first thing came to mind, all those horrid little nursery rhymes of my parents generation and before, I never heard them until I was in middle school. quite horrid.

horrid to me is the kid who used to pick his nose in class, or a baby with snot running down his nose, To which I exclaim.....ewwwwwwwwww

Doug The Una said...

Minka, I like that quote. Macbeth?

Thanks, DB!

Sure Jim, lest the exclamations hit the branches where they grow.

Karen, horridly busy can be a real relief from blessedly idle. Can't it?

Lily, that's a new one. Thanks for the list but they're a long way from comprehensive.

The young women of a generation ago, TLP.

Dang, Thom. That's a good example.

Pia, I just hope you looked both ways, forward and backward.

Quilly, among your many virtues: your etymology is uniquely future-focused.

And the curl was a Longfellow, Weirsdo. I think Ariel quoted that nursery rhyme here a while back.

Cooper, I agree. Public effluvium is horrid.

Ariel the Thief said...

She did!

Nessa said...

I think horrid is the new Phat.

Doug The Una said...

Ariel, I thought so.

Nessa, I think phat is the new horrid.