hideous

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. Probably from Proto-West Germanic *agisiþu (“horror, terror”), from Proto-West Germanic *agisōn (“to frighten, terrorise”), from Proto-Germanic *agaz (“terror, fear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- (“to frighten”). Cognate with Old High German egisa, egidī (“horror”), Old English egesa (“fear, dread”), Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (agis, “fear, terror”).

Alternative etymology cites possible derivation from Latin hispidosus (“rugged”), from hispidus (“rough, bristly”), yet the semantic evolution is less plausible.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɪd.i.əs/

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hideous (comparative more hideous, superlative most hideous)

1. Extremely or shockingly ugly.

   I'm sorry to break it to you, but your dress looks truly hideous.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     the Duke's army departed unmolested : but the highway along which he retired presented a piteous and hideous spectacle.

2. Having a very unpleasant or frightening sound.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

     He started up, growling at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again; and then got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard.

3. Hateful; shocking.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

     Sure, you have some hideous matter to deliver.

4. Morally offensive; shocking; detestable.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 9:

     when the wind is shrieking, and the men are yelling, and every plank thunders with trampling feet right over Jonah’s head; in all this raging tumult, Jonah sleeps his hideous sleep.

• frightful, ghastly, grim, grisly, grotesque, horrid, dreadful, terrible

• hideosity
• hideously
• hideousness

hideous

1. Alternative form of hidous (“terrifying”)