Etymology

terrible

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Today it means: Causing terror, alarm or fear; dreadful Full definition →

Middle English terrible ← Old French terrible ← Latin terribili
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*tres-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*troséyeti
  3. Proto-Italic*troseō
  4. Latinterreō
  5. Latinterribili
  6. Old Frenchterrible
  7. Middle Englishterrible
  8. English todayterrible

Inherited from Middle English terrible, from Old French terrible, from Latin terribilis (“frightful”), from terreō (“to frighten, terrify, alarm; to deter by terror, scare (away)”). Compare terror, deter. By surface analysis, terror + -ible. Displaced Old English atol and sliþe, while also largely overtaking grimm.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.