Talk:horrible

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horrible

"A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing." Kappa 04:15, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

• Has to be usable as a noun, otherwise it could not have a plural, without which the well-worn legal reference to a "parade of horribles" could not exist. bd2412 T 18:14, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
• Here's a parade of examples of use as a noun in the plural:

Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson, A Woman Tenderfoot (2005) p. 125:

If it does not appeal to you as one of the horribles in life, try it once.

Owen West, Four Days to Veracruz: A Novel (2003) p. 240:

For all the horribles that his legs and feet endured, they weren't the root cause of his suffering.

Christopher Chambers, A Prayer for Deliverance: An Angela Bivens Thriller (2003) p. 772:

There're tangible horribles out there, honey.

Neil K. Komesar, Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights (2001) p. 51:

Many scholars have demonstrated these horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions.

Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey (1991) p. 1:

The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles.

United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate (1982) p. 70:

A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by the people objecting to this convention ignore the plain language of this treaty.

Otis L. Graham, Jr., Toward a Planned Society: from Roosevelt to Nixon (1976) p. 62:

Congressmen talked of tyranny, and other imaginary horribles, and one vigilant member opposed the six administrative assistants on the ground that they would be "theoretical intellectualprofessorial nincompoops."

Ernest Way Elkington, Adrift in New Zealand (1906) p. 241:

I always like to get over the horribles first, so that the good things of life may leave the last impression.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851):

Here's a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles!

For what it's worth, there were many other references to "horribles and antiques" or to a literal "parade of horribles", which reference the use of "horribles" to describe people in a procession costumed as horrible things (this sense should be added). bd2412 T 18:58, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

• There's also an NPR interview with John Dean where Dean says "I would raise one horrible after another, and explaining the criminal consequences of what was happening." I can't seem to find a link to this, although I'm sure NPR interview transcripts are durably archived somewhere. bd2412 T 19:17, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

  Aha, he said something very similar on CNN (here's the transcript):

  John Dean: I'm trying to convince him that the criminal behavior that's going on at the White House has to end. And I give him one horrible after the next. I just keep raising them. He sort of swats them away.

  bd2412 T 19:25, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

I’ve always considered the noun use of horrible to be a Gallicism, because you hear it often from the French Cajuns in Louisiana. In a recent TV series, a Cajun remarks: "This muggy November weather gives me the horribles.". —Stephen 19:41, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, indeed, it appears from the cites I came across that a parade of horribles has long been a common feature of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. This usage is fairly similar to the usage of the word grotesque as a noun which means a piece of architecture in a particular style. bd2412 T 01:33, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

RFVpassed. — Beobach972 04:35, 4 June 2007 (UTC)