Horrid

How to spell horrid

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce horrid

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does horrid mean?

1. adjectiveCausing strong dislike or disgust; very unpleasant or nasty.

Horrid in a sentence

• The office painted the walls a horrid shade of green.

• She apologised for the horrid way she had spoken to her colleague.

Where does horrid come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Horrid comes from the Latin adjective horridus, which literally meant 'bristling', 'shaggy', or 'rough', built on the verb horrere meaning 'to bristle' or 'to shudder with fear'. The original picture was very physical: hair or fur standing on end, the same reaction we still describe when something makes our skin crawl. English took the word in during the late 1500s, at first using it in its earthy Latin sense of rough or shaggy, but it quickly drifted toward 'causing horror' and then softened further into the everyday sense of simply nasty or unpleasant. The same horrere root sits inside the closely related words 'horror', 'horrible', and 'horrendous', so the double r at the front is consistent across the whole family. Remembering that link to 'horror' is the easiest way to keep both r letters in place when spelling horrid.

How the word is built

• horr- (from Latin horrere: to bristle, shudder)
• -id (adjective suffix)