When ‘Terrific’ Meant ‘Terrifying’

If your friends throw you a birthday party, you might call it a terrific surprise. And if you and your friends then follow that up with a trip to a haunted house, that could be a terrifying experience. As you might be able to tell from their similar spellings, these adjectives share an etymological root — and once were synonymous in definition. How did a word that originally meant “causing extreme fear” evolve to mean “excellent”?

The starting point of both words is the Latin terrere, meaning “to fill with fear,” and the last syllable of “terrific” is from the Latin facere, meaning “to make.” 

When “terrific” entered the English lexicon in the 15th century, its meaning was the same as that of the Latin terrificus — “to make filled with fear.” For example, Milton, in Paradise Lost (1667), describes the serpent in paradise as a beast “with brazen Eyes And hairie Main terrific.”

Within a century, however, “terrific” took on a weakened sense, meaning “of great size or intensity, excessive, very severe.” A 1743 translation of Horace’s lyric poetry applies “terrific” in the sense of enormity: “How cou’d … Porphyrion of terrific size … stand against the Warrior-goddess?” Something of great size may be intimidating enough to cause fear, but by that time, “terrific” could be used as just a descriptor.

A century later, the meaning of “terrific” morphed to “amazing, impressive, splendid.” An early example of this usage appeared in an 1871 journal of science and the arts, The Athenaeum: “The last lines of the first ballad are simply terrific, — something entirely different to what any English author would dream of, much less put on paper.”

“Terrific” is now used in two ways. First, it means “excellent or wonderful”; you might have a terrific time, do a terrific job, or attend a terrific performance. Second, it means “intense or extreme,” as in a terrific thunderstorm, a terrific headache, or a terrific blast.

This linguistic process of turning “terrific” into “excellent” is known as amelioration, by which the meaning of a word improves over time, from a negative connotation to a positive. It is a form of semantic change. “Amelioration” is from the Latin melior, meaning “better.” Other words that have undergone amelioration are “nice” (originally “foolish”), “pretty” (originally “crafty”), “fun” (originally “an act of fraud”), and “cute” (originally “shrewd”).

The opposite of amelioration is pejoration, by which the sense of a word shifts negatively. An example is “awful,” which in Old English was egefull, meaning “striking with awe,” but by the 19th century implied something was very bad, as in, “The building collapse was an awful tragedy.” 

But that same root is the source of “awfully,” as in, “It was awfully good of you to give me a ride.” You aren’t in awe of your chauffeur friend, but you add that “awfully” adverb for emphasis when expressing your appreciation. That particular sense shift isn’t amelioration or pejoration — instead it revises a less extreme sense of “awe.”