Horrible is a term that comes from the Latin word horribĭlis . It is an adjective that, according to the first meaning mentioned by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) in its dictionary, refers to that which causes horror .
The concept of horror, in turn, refers to a feeling caused by something terrifying, horrifying or creepy . The horrible, therefore, generates an intense and unpleasant emotion . For example: “Last night I dreamed that I had a car accident, it was horrible,” “Having a child suffer a health problem must be horrible,” “In the movie, a horrible monster frightened all the inhabitants of a small rural town.” ” .
The term horrible can also refer to that which is very ugly , either in a physical (aesthetic) or symbolic sense : “Who is that horrible man who is insulting the air?” , “Yesterday I found a horrible insect on the table” , “It is horrible to have to go through a situation of this type” .
The lousy , on the other hand, can be described as horrible. According to its definition in the RAE dictionary, the meaning of this term refers to something extremely bad, which could not be worse. Let's look at some example sentences: “The service at this hotel is horrible! I don't plan to stay here again” , “In the restaurant they served us a horrible dish that we couldn't eat” , “The new player on the team is horrible, I don't understand who decided to hire him” .
Nowadays, thanks to the possibilities that the Internet gives us as consumers to express our opinions publicly, it is very common for us to make ourselves heard after the launch of a product or service. Given various factors very typical of the dynamics of commerce, discontent is an element as predictable as it is impossible to avoid: no matter how famous and prestigious a company is, its proposals will always be received with a percentage of admiration, another of indifference and another of hate. This last portion of the public is usually considerable or, at least, loud enough for their complaints - unfounded or not - to cover the event with gray clouds.
It's very easy to say that a product is horrible. We open our mouths, utter the few simple words, and that's it. We have condemned it. The question is whether we have the basis to back up our criticism, and nine times out of ten we don't. Let's look at an example that can serve to illustrate this phenomenon that repeats itself like a ghost dramatizing its own murder in a haunted house: a leading telephone company launches a new telephone with technical characteristics never seen before; one of the terminals evaluated by journalists has a major failure; the public - who have not yet seen it or tried it - begin to say that "the phone is horrible", that it does not work and that it will be a failure; The phone becomes a commercial success within a few months, outselling all previous models.
This contradiction does not occur by magic, but because the classification of horrible arises without sufficient information and as a result of having the word before access to a basis on which to support it. In a market where companies plan to sell hundreds of millions of terminals per fiscal year, the fact that a few units fail does not speak of the quality of the product in general, but rather of an isolated problem.
The notion of horrible, finally, can refer to that which is very marked or intense with a negative connotation : “The blow caused a horrible pain in my head” , “How can you think of shouting like that? “You gave me a horrible scare!” , “I'm terribly tired, but at least I've finished the work.”