Have you ever noticed what happens to your arms when you get cold or frightened? You might get ‘goosebumps’, pimply skin, which got its name from its resemblance to the skin of a plucked goose (eurgh). But something else happens too. The little hairs on your arms stand up on end! The same thing happens to cats and dogs too, just like those cartoon cats whose fur sticks straight up. They look pretty horrible….

In Latin, the language of the Romans, the verb horrere described hair that stuck out. The Romans noticed that that’s exactly what happened to their own body hair whenever they were frightened. And so horrere became linked to the idea of shivering with terror at the sight of something awful.

That’s why, whenever we talk about things being ‘horrible’ or ‘horrifying’ today, or whenever we watch a ‘horror’ movie, we have to thank the Romans — and take a look at what the hairs on our arms are doing!

Did you know …

… that there are other words in English which come from the way our bodies change in certain situations. ‘Appalling’, meaning something that’s awful. It comes from a word that means ‘to grow pale’ in terror. And ‘petrified’ comes from the idea of something being changed into stone. That’s because, when we’re that scared, we stand still like a statue!