hideous
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhɪd.i.əs/
ipa: /ˈhɪd͡ʒəs/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈhiɖɪjəs/
rhymes: -ɪdiəs
Forms: form: more hideous
form: most hideous
Etymology: From Middle English hidous, from Anglo-Norman hidous, from Old French hideus, hydus (“that which inspires terror”), from earlier hisdos, from Old French hisda (“horror, fear”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Probably from Proto-West Germanic *agisiþu (“horror, terror”), from Proto-West Germanic *agisōn (“to frighten, terrorise”), from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, fear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- (“to frighten”). Cognate with Old High German egisa, egidī (“horror”), Old English egesa (“fear, dread”), Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (agis, “fear, terror”).
Alternative etymology cites possible derivation from Latin hispidosus (“rugged”), from hispidus (“rough, bristly”), yet the semantic evolution is less plausible.
Senses: examples: text: I’m sorry to break it to you, but your dress looks truly hideous.
text: the Duke's army departed unmolested : but the highway along which he retired presented a piteous and hideous spectacle.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
text: Like the "Kas," these locomotives were originally semi-streamlined, although their conical snout was not nearly so hideous as the sloping mock-radiators adorning the bigger engines.
ref: 1954 August, J. B. Snell, “The New Zealand Government Railways—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 561:
glosses: Extremely or shockingly ugly.
examples: text: He started up, growling at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard.
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:
glosses: Having a very unpleasant or frightening sound.
examples: text: [W]hat may this meane, / That thou, dead corſe, againe in compleate ſteele, / Reuiſſits thus the glimſes of the Moone, / Making night hideous, and vve fooles of nature, / So horridely to ſhake our diſpoſition, / VVith thoughts beyond the reaches of our ſoules?
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], signature C3, recto:
text: Sure, you have some hideous matter to deliver.
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
glosses: Hateful; shocking.
examples: text: when the wind is shrieking, and the men are yelling, and every plank thunders with trampling feet right over Jonah’s head; in all this raging tumult, Jonah sleeps his hideous sleep.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter IX, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
glosses: Morally offensive; shocking; detestable.
Synonyms: frightful
ghastly
grim
grisly
grotesque
horrid
dreadful
terrible
Derived terms: hideola
hideosity
hideously
hideousness
unhideous