Mises à jour des statuts de la communauté

Silfren

I can't say I ponder it often, but I've also found myself pondering the same thing. One of these days I'll take the initiative to do an etymology check. Given that horrific and horrifying have maintained similar meanings I'd wager that it was once the case for the former two.
juil. 11 2014 05:23

Thomas Andresen

I actually did check, after I posted the status. It's why I added the comment. It's only colloquially that "terrific" has a use that isn't negative. "Terrific" in the colloquial sense was originally used to mean "terrifyingly great," or similar enforcements. So it makes more sense that I expected.
juil. 12 2014 02:42

Silfren

It's more than colloquial at this point. The use of terrific in a negative sense hasn't been used that way in typical, everyday usage for a long time, at least in American English. Without context, using terrific wouldn't make sense to anyone not cognizant of the archaic meaning. Even WITH context, most people are going to find a negative application very jarring to their awareness of what the word means. I've always known that terrific had to have a similar background as...
juil. 18 2014 03:05