[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Horrible/horrid

[Doreen]

Sam wrote:

<<Ever since reading Terry Pratchett's 'Hogfather', I absolutely
cannot stand it when people use the word 'horrid'. Why not just use
horrible? According to my dictionary, they both mean pretty much the
same thing, except horrid is a little more colloquial.>>

Neil wrote:

According to Fowler's Modern English Usage, 'horrid' is the least
emphatic of a series of adjectives meaning disagreeable, running from
horrid, through horrible, to horrifying.  Fowler's also notes that
horrendous and horrific were once even more powerful terms, but that
their impact has been lessened by exposure in the popular media.

To me horrid is the sort of word that only well-to-do people, and
particularly their children, would use.  One might think that one's
Nanny was being horrid to one, or that one's new velvet pantaloons
were simply horrid. IMO, it isn't quite as bad as the word 'beastly'
or the use of the word 'rather' to emphasise an affirmative response.
********************
I have always liked the word 'horrid' ... ever since I was a small child and
my grandmother used to recite the little ditty:

There once was a girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very, very good,
And when she was bad,
She was horrid.

Doreen, who usually leaned toward the horrid side of life
***********************








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