Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “horrendous” come from?

Horrendous comes from Latin horrendus, meaning "dreadful," formed from the Proto-Italic horzēō stem with the Latin -osus suffix denoting a quality or condition.

horrendous (English): Extremely bad; awful; terrible

Definitions

  1. Extremely bad; awful; terrible

Ancestry of “horrendous”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinhorrendushorrible, horrendous
2Latinhorreō—
3Proto-Italichorzēō—
4Proto-Indo-Europeanǵʰr̥séh₁(ye)ti—

Words derived from “horrendous”

  • horrendously
  • horrendousness
Every word from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰr̥séh₁(ye)ti →