An alternative or less common spelling of 'gruesome,' meaning disturbing or horrifying.
Variant spelling of 'gruesome,' which derives from Middle Dutch 'gruwen' (to shudder or feel horror). This spelling reflects older pronunciation patterns in English, though 'gruesome' is the standard modern form.
This spelling variation shows how English spelling hasn't always been standardized—even in the 1600s, writers spelled the same words multiple ways, and sometimes old variants like 'grewsome' tell us how people actually pronounced words back then.
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