horribile dictu

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English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin horribile dictu (literally horrible to say).

Adverb

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horribile dictu (not comparable)

  1. Horrible to say; horribly.
    • 2011 May 6, Jonathan Dee, “A Midwestern Family’s Withered Roots”, in The New York Times[1]:
      We first meet the Ericksons in 1973, at the wedding of the family’s eldest child, Anita, a small-town beauty for whom marriage and motherhood ultimately become traps more than prizes; her husband is not just a drinker and a poor father but, horribile dictu, a banker who forecloses on local farms even when those farms are owned by Erickson friends or relations.

Translations

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