HORRID, adj. In English hideous, frightful, appalling. In Young-womanese, mildly objectionable.
2009 Update: Punishable by exclamation.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.
horrid, adj.
ReplyDeleteBritish for hitonious!
this goes out to Jamie Dawn!
“[Your] horrid image doth unfix my hair.”
ReplyDeleteLOL, that Shakespeare! Just hope he wasn't looking into a mirror and holding it up to the world! ;)
Perfect!
ReplyDeleteHorrid -- 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.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we'd better duck!
..
I'm horridly busy today!
ReplyDeleteword verifier: houred ... please schedule an appointment for next comment.
Horrid: Everyone featured in Dickipedia.
ReplyDeleteHorrid: mildly objectionable in Valley Girl speak.
ReplyDeleteCrossing from Bierce to Pascover was not a horrid turn in the road!
ReplyDeleteHORRID 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.
ReplyDeleteFisherman 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
What?! YOU picked the word. I'm innocent.
ReplyDeleteI bet Bierce's girl cultivated a single curl in the middle of her forehead.
ReplyDeleteweirsdo'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.
ReplyDeletehorrid 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
Minka, I like that quote. Macbeth?
ReplyDeleteThanks, 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.
She did!
ReplyDeleteI think horrid is the new Phat.
ReplyDeleteAriel, I thought so.
ReplyDeleteNessa, I think phat is the new horrid.