Causes someone to feel extreme fear or panic; frightens someone very badly.
From Latin 'terrificus' (causing terror), from 'terrere' (to frighten) plus '-ficus' (making). The root 'terrere' is related to 'terror'. The verb form came into English in the 14th century through Old French.
The Latin root 'terrere' (to frighten) appears in 'terror', 'terrifying', and 'terrestrial'—the last one probably came from people's primal fear of the earth/ground shaking. Our ancestors' fears literally became the names of things!
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