gruesome

English

Etymology

From grue (“to shudder”) +‎ -some. 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.

   • 2011 May 4, “Bin Laden was unarmed when shot dead”, in Al Jazeera‎^[1]:

     Jay Carney said that the US was considering whether to release photos of bin Laden after he was killed on Sunday but that the photos were gruesome and could be inflammatory.

Translations

repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly

• Bulgarian: страшен (bg) (strašen), ужасен (bg) (užasen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 可怕 (zh) (kěpà), 恐怖 (zh) (kǒngbù)

• Danish: makaber, uhyggelig
• Dutch: angstaanjagend (nl), verschrikkelijk (nl), gruwzaam (nl), gruwelijk (nl), afschuwelijk (nl), afgrijselijk (nl)
• Esperanto: terura
• Finnish: kaamea (fi), kauhea (fi)
• French: horrible (fr)
• Galician: truculento, repelente m or f
• German: grauenhaft (de), grauenvoll (de)
• Greek: φρικτός (el) m (friktós), απαίσιος (el) m (apaísios)
• Italian: orribile (it), raccapricciante (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 身の毛もよだつ (minokemoyodatsu)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: mengerikan
• Maori: tūpō, wetiweti
• Norwegian: grusom
• Occitan: òrre (oc), orrible
• 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: espantoso, truculento (es)
• Turkish: korkunç (tr)