horror

English Online Dictionary. What means horror‎? What does horror mean?

English

Alternative forms

• horrour (UK, hypercorrect spelling or archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English horer, horrour, from Old French horror, from Latin horror (“a bristling, a shaking, trembling as with cold or fear, terror”), from horrere (“to bristle, shake, be terrified”). Displaced native Old English ōga.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, New England) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒɹ.ə/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɹ.ɚ/
• • (New York City, Philadelphia) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹ.ɚ/
  • (some accents) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɚ/
• Homophones: whore, hoar (some rhotic American accents with the horse–hoarse merger)
• Rhymes: -ɒɹə(ɹ), -ɔː(ɹ)

Noun

horror (countable and uncountable, plural horrors)

1. (countable, uncountable) An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance.
2. (countable, uncountable) Something horrible; that which excites horror.
3. (countable, uncountable) Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.
4. (uncountable) A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.
5. (countable) An individual work in this genre.
6. (countable, colloquial) A nasty or ill-behaved person; a rascal or terror.

7. (informal) An intense anxiety or a nervous depression; often the horrors.
8. (in the plural, informal) Delirium tremens.

Synonyms

• nightmare

Hypernyms

• speculative fiction

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• “horror”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “horror”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “horror”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Galician

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin horror.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɔˈroɾ]

Noun

horror m (plural horrores)

1. horror

   Synonyms: espanto, pavor, terror

Related terms

References

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “horror”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “horror”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horror.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈhorːor]
• Hyphenation: hor‧ror
• Rhymes: -or

Noun

horror (plural horrorok)

1. horror

Declension

References

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *horzōs, remodeled into a rhotic-stem. Equivalent to horreo +‎ -or.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈhor.ror/, [ˈhɔrːɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈor.ror/, [ˈɔrːor]

Noun

horror m (genitive horrōris); third declension

1. bristling (standing on end)
2. shaking, shivering, chill
3. dread, terror, horror

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Related terms

• horrendus
• horridus
• horribilis
• horrificus

Descendants

References

• “horror”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “horror”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• horror in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

Old French

Alternative forms

• horrour
• horrur

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horror, horrorem.

Noun

horror oblique singular, f (oblique plural horrors, nominative singular horror, nominative plural horrors)

1. horror or terror

Descendants

• English: horror
• Middle French: horreur
  • French: horreur

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English horror.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxɔr.rɔr/
• Rhymes: -ɔrrɔr
• Syllabification: hor‧ror

Noun

horror m inan

1. (colloquial) horror (something horrible; that which excites horror)
2. horror movie

   Synonym: film grozy

3. horror (literary genre)

Declension

Further reading

• horror in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• horror in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin horrōrem.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: (Portugal, São Paulo) -oɾ, (Brazil) -oʁ
• Hyphenation: hor‧ror

Noun

horror m (plural horrores)

1. horror

   Synonyms: temor, terror

Related terms

• horrendo
• hórrido
• horrífero
• horrífico
• horripilar
• horrível
• horrorizar
• horroroso

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English horror.

Adjective

horror m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. horror

Declension

Noun

horror n (plural horror)

1. horror

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horrorem.

Cf. also the popular Old Spanish horrura, inherited from a derivative of the Latin or with a change of suffix, and taking on the meaning of "dirtiness, filth, impurity, scum"; comparable to derivatives of horridus in other Romance languages, like Italian ordo, Old French ord, French ordure, Old Catalan hòrreu, horresa, Old Occitan orre, orrezeza, Romanian urdoare.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oˈroɾ/ [oˈroɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: ho‧rror

Noun

horror m (plural horrores)

1. horror; terror

   Synonyms: miedo, temor, terror

Derived terms

Related terms

References

Further reading

• “horror”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28