gruesome

English

Etymology

Compare (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Danish and (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Norwegian grusom (“horrible”), German grausam (“cruel”), and Dutch gruwzaam (“gruesome; cruel”).

Adjective

gruesome (comparative gruesomer or more gruesome, superlative gruesomest or most gruesome)

1. repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly
   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6

     In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing. Upon the bed lay a similar gruesome thing, but smaller, while in a tiny cradle near-by was a third, a wee mite of a skeleton.

Translations

repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly

• Bulgarian: страшен (bg) (strašen), ужасен (bg) (užasen)
• Danish: makaber, uhyggelig
• Dutch: angstaanjagend (nl), verschrikkelijk (nl), gruwzaam, gruwelijk (nl), afschuwelijk (nl)
• French: horrible (fr)
• Galician: truculento
• German: grauenhaft (de), grauenvoll (de)
• Greek: φρικτός (el) m (friktós), απαίσιος (el) m (apaísios)
• Italian: orribile (it), raccapricciante (it)
• Japanese: 身の毛もよだつ (minokemoyodatsu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: tūpō
• Norwegian: grusom
• Occitan: òrre (oc)
• Portuguese: medonho (pt), horrendo (pt), pavoroso (pt)
• Romanian: groaznic (ro) m
• Russian: омерзи́тельный (ru) (omerzítelʹnyj), отврати́тельный (ru) (otvratítelʹnyj), ужа́сный (ru) (užásnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: grozan (sh)
• Spanish: truculento