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

“Terrific” is similar to “nonplussed” where the colloquial meaning is changing. “Nonplussed” literally means so shocked you can’t speak, but it’s used more and more to mean something like underwhelmed or bluntly uninterested.

Same thing happened to “terrific”.

Languages evolve sometimes in unexpected ways: a sarcastic or non-literal meaning takes on and overtime folks stop using the original meaning and it falls out of use all together.

Also compare “awful” and “awesome”. Very similar to “terrible” and “terrific”.

“Literal/literally” is a another good example too, actually.