Today my husband described one thing as “terrible” and another as “horrible,” and he used those descriptions in a way that implied that one was worse than the other. This struck me as odd, because I think that “horrible” and “terrible” are roughly the same on the Scale of Badness.
I suppose if forced to choose one over the other, I would say that “horror” is slightly worse than “terror,” and therefore “horrible” is slightly worse than “terrible.” But on this my husband and I do not agree. He says that “terrible” is like a habanero pepper and “horrible” is like a jalapeno. Sometimes a jalapeno can be super hot (i.e., very bad), but most of the time the habanero is hotter (i.e., worse).
Which do you think is worse?