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URL: https://www.etymonline.com/word/monstrosity

⇱ Monstrosity - Etymology, Origin & Meaning

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Origin and history of monstrosity

monstrosity(n.)

1550s, "an abnormality of growth," from Late Latin monstrositas "strangeness," from Latin monstrosus, a collateral form of monstruosus (source of French monstruosité), from monstrum "divine omen, portent, sign; abnormal shape; monster, monstrosity," figuratively "repulsive character, object of dread, awful deed, abomination," from root of monere "to admonish, warn, advise," from PIE *moneie- "to make think of, remind," suffixed (causative) form of root *men- (1) "to think."

Earlier form was monstruosity (c. 1400). Sense of "state or quality of being monstrous" is first recorded 1650s. Meaning "a monster" is attested from 1640s.

also from 1550s

Entries linking to monstrosity

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to think," with derivatives referring to qualities and states of mind or thought.

It might form all or part of: admonish; Ahura Mazda; ament; amentia; amnesia; amnesty; anamnesis; anamnestic; automatic; automaton; balletomane; comment; compos mentis; dement; demonstrate; Eumenides; idiomatic; maenad; -mancy; mandarin; mania; maniac; manic; mantic; mantis; mantra; memento; mens rea; mental; mention; mentor; mind; Minerva; minnesinger; mnemonic; Mnemosyne; money; monition; monitor; monster; monument; mosaic; Muse; museum; music; muster; premonition; reminiscence; reminiscent; summon.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit manas- "mind, spirit," matih "thought," munih "sage, seer;" Avestan manah- "mind, spirit;" Greek memona "I yearn," mania "madness," mantis "one who divines, prophet, seer;" Latin mens "mind, understanding, reason," memini "I remember," mentio "remembrance;" Lithuanian mintis "thought, idea," Old Church Slavonic mineti "to believe, think," Russian pamjat "memory;" Gothic gamunds, Old English gemynd "memory, remembrance; conscious mind, intellect."

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among those who should most abhor it, the people of sufficient education to realize its bad formation; it is at once a monstrosity...

c. 1400, sporten, "take pleasure, enjoy or amuse oneself," from Old French desporter, deporter "to divert, amuse, please, play; to seek amusement," etymologically "carry away" (the mind from serious matters), from des- "away" (see dis-) + porter "to carry," from Latin portare "to

mid-14c., stroppe, "loop or strap on a harness," also in nautical use in reference to a ship's rigging, perhaps shortened from Old French estrop, making it the older and more correct form of strap (n.). It was replaced by that word from 16c. But Germanic candidates for its origin

late 14c., mutacioun, "action or process of changing," from Old French mutacion (13c.), and directly from Latin mutationem (nominative mutatio) "a changing, alteration, a turn for the worse," noun of action from past-participle stem of mutare "to change" (from PIE root *mei- (1)

late 14c., "sea monster, sea serpent," sometimes regarded as a form of Satan, from Late Latin leviathan, from Hebrew livyathan "dragon, serpent, huge sea animal," of unknown origin, perhaps from root l-w-h- "to wind, turn, twist," on the notion of a serpent's coils. If so, relate

Old English Angli Saxones (plural), from Latin Anglo-Saxones, in which Anglo- is an adjective, thus literally "English Saxons," as opposed to those of the Continent (now called Old Saxons). Properly in reference to the Saxons of ancient Wessex, Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex. I am

late 14c., "of or pertaining to desires or appetites," from Old French voluptueux, volumptueuse and directly from Latin voluptuosus "full of pleasure, delightful," from voluptas "pleasure, delight, enjoyment, satisfaction," from volup "pleasurably," perhaps ultimately related to

mid-13c., "image of a deity as an object of (pagan) worship," from Old French idole "idol, graven image, pagan god" (11c.), from Latin idolum "image (mental or physical), form," especially "apparition, ghost," but used in Church Latin for "false god, image of a pagan deity as an

Old English drifan "to compel or urge to move, impel in some direction or manner; to hunt (deer), pursue; to rush against" (class I strong verb; past tense draf, past participle drifen), from Proto-Germanic *dreibanan (source also of Old Frisian driva "I lead, impel, drive (away)

mid-14c., confourmen, "be obedient (to God), comply," from Old French conformer "conform (to), agree (to), make or be similar, be agreeable" (13c.) and directly from Latin conformare "to fashion, to form, to shape; educate; modify," from assimilated form of com "together" (see co

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