terrific

Definition

Terrifying, causing terror; terrible; sublime, awe-inspiring.

Etymology

From French terrifique, and its source, Latin terrificus (“terrifying”), from terrēre (“to frighten, terrify”) + -ficus, related to facere (“to make”). By surface analysis, terrify + -ic. The sense of excellent or amazing is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of terrifying. Compare similar semantic development in sick and wicked.

Example Sentences

• "[T]he diſmal ſhrieks of demoniac rage […] rouſed phantoms of horror in her mind, far more terrific than all that dreaming ſuperſtition ever drew."
• "Think of wandering amid sepulchral ruins, of stumbling over the bones of the dead, of encountering what I cannot describe,—the horror of being among those who are neither the living or the dead;—those dark and shadowless things that sport themselves with the reliques of the dead, and feast and love amid corruption,—ghastly, mocking, and terrific."
• "He made love in a coach and six, and married in a coach and twelve, and all his horses were milk-white horses with one red spot on the back which he caused to be hidden by the harness. For, the spot would come there, though every horse was milk-white when Captain Murderer bought him. And the spot was young bride's blood. (To this terrific point I am indebted for my first personal experience of a shudder and cold beads on the forehead.)"

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