English
hideous
Hideous may come from Middle English hidous ‘hideous, horrible, repulsive’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hidous‘hideous, horrible, repulsive’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602hideous
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hidous‘hideous, horrible, repulsive’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602hideous
Earliest quotation: c. 1599–1602, William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “[W]hat may this meane, / That thou, dead corſe,…”
The story
From Middle English hidous, from Anglo-Norman hidous, from Old French hideus, hydus (‘that which inspires terror’), from earlier hisdos, from Old French hisda (‘horror, fear’), of uncertain and disputed origin.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it. Alternative etymology cites possible derivation from Latin hispidosus (‘rugged’), from hispidus (‘rough, bristly’), yet the semantic evolution is less plausible.
Every English word from Middle English hidous
Today it means
adj Extremely or shockingly ugly.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English hidous / hideous