why are terrible and horrible basically the same thing but horrific and terrific are basically the opposite

Question

English will never be something I fully understand

In: 9830

Answer 1

Apparently they’ve drifted apart overtime. There’s a radio broadcast of the hindenburg disaster and they say “terrific crash” and they don’t mean it in any positive sense of the word.

At the 00:30 mark https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ad9tholMEM