awfulとは意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, aȝefull, equivalent to awe +‎ -ful. Compare 古期英語 eġeful, eġefull (“terrifying; awful”).

発音

• (英国発音) IPA^(key): /ˈɔːfʊl/, /ˈɔːfəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔfəl/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑfəl/
• 韻: -ɔːfʊl
• Homophone: offal (in dialects with the cot-caught merger)

形容詞

awful (comparative awfuller または more awful, superlative awfullest または most awful)

1. Very bad.

   My socks smell awful.

   We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.

2. Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.

   an awful bonnet

   I have learnt an awful amount today.

   • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, OCLC 865290061, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2 AI Core Room:

     Shepard: You seem to know an awful lot about me.
     Geth: Extranet data sources. Insecure broadcasts. All organic data sent out is received. We watch you.

3. (now dated) Causing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
   • 1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter

     There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of the person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the perfect, stonelike stillness of the figure, that effectually checked the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated artist.

4. (now rare) Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     God ought not to be commixed in our actions, but with awful reverence, and an attention full of honour and respect.

   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.143:

     And then she stopped, and stood as if in awe / (For sleep is awful) […].

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 124:

     If the keepers of the sacred corral discovered paternity in their stock breeding, then that knowledge would have been seen as numinous, awe-ful, and unconsciously unsettling.

5. (now rare) Struck or filled with awe.
6. (obsolete) Terror-stricken.
7. Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
   • 1848-50, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis, ch. 2:

     She spoke about Mr. Pendennis (a worthy little gentleman enough, but there are others as good as he) with an awful reverence, as if he had been the Pope of Rome on his throne, and she a cardinal kneeling at his feet, and giving him incense.

同意語

• See also Thesaurus:frightening

派生語

• awfulness
• awfully

副詞

awful (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Awfully; dreadfully; terribly.
   • 1933 January 21, The Sydney Sportsman, page 1:

     The race was run, and the dog ran "awful".

2. (colloquial, US, Canada) Very, extremely.

   That's an awful big house.

   She seemed awful nice when I met her yesterday.

   He was blubbering away something awful.