Thread: English!
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Old 09-24-2002, 12:13 PM   #4
realbinky
Elminster
 

Join Date: March 14, 2001
Location: Milford, MA 01757
Age: 52
Posts: 442
"If horrific means to make horrible, does terrific mean to make terrible? "
Yes it does, but the two words have diverged in meaning.

This is a great, funny topic.

English isn't 1 language, it's 3 (or more). Old English/German, Scandinavian (Viking, also Germanic) and French (Latin), due to various occupations of England. This is why we have words like royal, regal and kingly, which mean the same thing, but came from different roots. Check out http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/language.html, my source on this.

And http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Wr....html#latinate for the below.

Awesome lately means really good/cool, but its actual meaning is awe inspiring, as in fear-inducing or "terrible." If something is terribly good, it is awesomely good, or so good as to inspire awe.

And sh$$ means just that. So does fu$$. Its a derivative of an old english word that always meant that. Its not a
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