French word meaning terrible, dreadful, or frightful; used in English to describe something very ugly or distasteful.
From Old French 'affreus,' derived from 'affray' (to frighten), with Latin roots in 'affrangere.' It remains a French adjective but is sometimes used in English.
English borrowed lots of French adjectives for describing things as 'awful,' and 'affreux' shows how these words originally just meant 'causing fear'—fear is the root of finding something bad.
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