nawee
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Posts: 400
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 Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 1:28 am Post subject: perfectly terrific |
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Hello,
"Perfectly terrific" sounds odd to me. Is this combination acceptable to native speakers? For some reason, I don't "absolutely terric". Is there any other adverb I can use?
Thank you,
Nawee |
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CP
Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Posts: 2875
Location: California
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| Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:42 am Post subject: |
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Yes, you would be better off with "absolutely terrific" rather than "perfectly terrific." It doesn't sound right to say "perfectly terrific," although "perfectly wonderful" is perfectly natural.
Don't know why!
By the way, "terrific" means great, wonderful, fabulous, etc., but originally it meant frightful. It has its roots in two Latin words, "terror" (terror, fear) and "facere" (to make, to do), hence, fear-making, frightful. ("Terrify" is the verb from the same roots; means make one fearful or frightened.)
Probably "terrifically good," like "frightfully good," morphed into "terrific" at some point, resulting in a complete change of meaning for the word.
"Terrific" changed completely, but "terrify" did not. No wonder English is so hard.
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