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I wonder what you all think of as the difference between "horror" and "terror."
The two words describe two very similar but somehow different emotions. It seems to me that "terror" might be what you would experience if you were, say, about to run up Omaha Beach on D-Day while being shot at by machine guns, and "horror" is what you would experience right after you actually got shot. That is, terror is a more intellectual fear based on your rational response to a situation, and horror is a more emotional response to a situation, involving fear and disgust.
Any thoughts on this?
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I've always thought to myself that terror is the fear of things real or rational, and that horror is the fear of the unreal or irrational. We don't have Terror flicks, nor do we have horrorists. But I'm not arguing logically.
Brandon
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hmmm... I guess I've always thought of horror as being the thing I felt at a scary movie and terror as being a reaction to something real that was actually and really frightening. 
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Just to add to the confusion I would say that horror was broader with fuzzier edges and terror more pointed.
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I'd have to agree with Brandon and tsuwm. Horror has a sense of the supernatural to it. I suspect that might have been *caused by the term "horror movie," though. When I get home I'll look into Stephen King's Danse Macabre, a great non-fiction book about the history of the genre, to see if the Master has anything to say on the matter.
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Surely you recognise the capacity to feel horror at ordinary human events? To me, terror implies fear, where horror implies revulsion or disgust. And terror is green, whilst horror, dear Kurtz, is definitely dark, very dark 
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broad, fuzzy; pointed; green; dark, very dark.
Synesthetes of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your bright mauve, discordant, rotten-egg chains!
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Terror can soil underwear. Horror can't.
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wwh>Terror can soil underwear. Horror can't. that depends... [actually, I like that, bill.]
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wwh>Terror can soil underwear. Horror can't.
tsuwm>that depends...
And if you wear Depends .... off to hide now, gutter police banging on door!
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I'm glad that Mav is on the same page as me. Here's one other way to differentiate terror and horror: Terror is the feeling that you have just before a public speaking engagement for which you are not well-prepared, and you know that Jackie is in the audience. Horror is what you feel when you walk off the stage, having just bombed the whole speech, and you realize that your fly is unzipped. In reply to:
We don't have Terror flicks, nor do we have horrorists. But I'm not arguing logically.
Well, I think Kenny G might be described as a horrorist, since his music makes me want to run screaming from the room. Same goes for Jerry Bruckheimer films, the Backstreet Boys, and MTV.
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"Mistuh Kurtz, he dead." I agree that terror is a reaction to something tangible...while horror is, as Brandon said, the fear of the unreal or irrational. I can be terrified by a spider, but I am horrified at the thought of a spider. ...where horror implies revulsion or disgust I also like this nuance of meaning for horror...like what I felt while watching John Malkovich incomprehensively butcher the character of Kurtz in the telemovie...it was as if he was just camping it up and walking through it, throwing it away because he had a tiff with the director and was out to spite him or something. And I wanted to scream at the screen, "You are a MUCH better actor than that! How DARE you do this to this great novel, you bastard, you!"  I was truly horrified! Darkness descending...... 
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"Ter ror is the feeling that you have just before a public speaking engagement for which you are not
well-prepared, and you know that Jackie is in the audience. Horror is what you feel when you walk off
the stage, having just bombed the whole speech, and you realize that your fly is unzipped."
I wish I had said that.
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How many *important writers were born into one language, but wrote their best-known works in an acquired language?
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How many *important writers were born into one language, but wrote their best-known works in an acquired language?Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.................Joseph Conrad?
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Conrad was Polish, right? What was Nabakov's original tongue?
You know what horrifies me? When I discover a tick on me and see that it's all engorged with my blood, and I realize how long it must've been there unbeknowest to me. *shudder* It is a sort of retrospective disgust. And of course I'm in terror that I might get rocky mountain spotted fever or something. *ugh* I've often imagined heaven as beautiful gardens and lawns and woods without any nasty bugs.
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Nabokov was born a Russian. He'd get my vote as the best non-native speaker/writer of English.
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No, no, no, guys: the key to the difference between terror and horror is believability. Terror is what you feel when something real, and real-ly scary, is about to happen. Horror is what you feel when what has either happened, or is about to happen, is so awful that you want to deny that it could be/could have been real. Interesting--I never really thought about these words being tense-sensitive (well, I figure if a browser can be case-sensitive, then surely tense-sensitive must be a word). You can't feel terror* once the event is finished--it is pretty well restricted to something that is in the present or the future. Horror can be felt at a past, present, or a future event. *I don't mean that the residuals of terror of something that almost happened to you abate immediately. I mean that if you come upon a scene where something terrifying has happened, but all danger is now gone, you cannot feel terror at that specific event. ========================================================== Terror can soil underwear. Horror can't.
that depends...Good one, tsuwm!  =========================================================== Alex--I am typing to Backstreet, from a video website! Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em! Even went to your town to hear 'em, November 17th, 1999. "I Want It That Way"... =========================================================== you walk off
the stage, having just bombed the whole speech, and you realize that your fly is unzipped."
I wish I had said that.Well, c'mere, Bill, let me help you with that zipper..
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In reply to:
Alex--I am typing to Backstreet, from a video website! Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em! Even went to your town to hear 'em, November 17th, 1999. "I Want It That Way"...
Let me get this straight, Jackie. Are you saying that you are a fan of the Backstreet Boys? *the horror! the horror!*
And you came to Lexington? Did you have dinner here, and if so, where?
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Are you saying that you are a fan of the Backstreet Boys?
Yes indeed! I have all their CD's. Listening to Shape of My Heart at the moment-ah, the rich harmonies these guys have! That's what first made me notice their songs on the radio. Then, when I saw them on the Disney Channel, and--
can you bear it, Sweetie??--MTV, and how synchronized their choreography is, I realized that these Boys work.
Definitely made me take a second look, and then a third...
Did you have dinner here, and if so, where?
Just in the mall attached to Rupp Arena. I ate in Lexington
fairly often when I was in the Lexington Philharmonic, but that's so long ago I don't remember anywhere in particular.
Man--once, the president of UK gave a reception for the
Philharmonic at his house: l-o-n-g white leather sofa, and
white shag carpet that was ankle-deep!
P.S.--You did know, didn't you [mischievous gleam e], that one of The Backstreet Boys is FROM Lexington, didn't you?
Went to Tates Creek High. And his cousin in the group is from Estill Co.
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<<terror soils underpants>>
Terror is a response to a real or perceived present danger. Horror is a response such a danger as mediated by time, telling, or image, or in some other way: the danger is not present, but is represented as present in a recounted situation.
Horror is also a moral response, often to a terrifying situation, suggesting that moral judgment, like the horror, requires the mediation of an account.
Terror is also a generalized fear of a purposely heightened likelihood of present danger. Terror, in this sense, shares the immediacy of the first meaning, and the mediation of horror and judgment: a legend of terror is a political force.
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In reply to:
the president of UK
Was that what the election was about? Last I heard we still had a queen.
Bingley
Bingley
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Hi Inselpeter,
I liked your definition/distinction best so far. I also think terror is more of an objective state that can be diagnosed from certain symptoms (in an individual or a community), whereas horror is the emotional/mental reaction to something that might be subjectively terrifying. Terror is also deliberately induced as a strategical ploy. Horror may be also, but for less lethal purposes.
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the president of UK (Jackie)
Was that what the election was about? Last I heard we still had a queen. (Bingley) Unfortunately, we still have, Bingley. The only plus point is that she probably doesn't cost so much, and definitely does less harm, than a president. Inside knowledge is required to interpret Jackie's gnomic phrase (above): You have, first, to take into account the inate insularity of the citizens of the USA - which is very odd, considering that they are not an island (quite apart from the Donne-ish perspective.) Second, you need to have picked up on the numerous clues that Jackie comes from "the land of 'shut ya mouth' and 'you-all'" as the immortal Lehrer has it, and, more specifically, from the part of that land where Van Gough painted the grass. "UK" takes on a whole new meaning.  (and that is quite apart from Aenigma's insistence that Jacking visited the president of the Ukraine
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FWIW - the UK reference was very local, as I too had to think for a second to interpret it correctly. I have noticed that across the US, abbreviations for colleges and universities are assumed by the locals to be implicitly understood, even if indecipherable or confusing to others. A reference to MSU can mean Mississippi State, Missouri State, or Michigan State, just to name the pertinent major universities. And trying to keep straight UK versus the KU! IU: Indiana? Iowa? Illinois? UI: ditto? The locals show no mercy.
It seems to be not a national attitude, but a much more localized perspective.
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I have noticed that across the US, abbreviations for colleges and universities are assumed by the locals to be implicitly understood, even if indecipherable or confusing to others.
And then you get the nicknames (and I don't mean mascots) like Wazzou (Washington U.), Mizzou (Missouri U.), Ole Miss (U. of Mississippi), and UMass (U. of Massachusetts). Not to mention Boston College, which is a University in Newton, MA...
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... which reminds me of speaking to a non-sports-fan friend about an incident involving the University of Connecticut. I said, "...they played UConn [using the usual term of reference in sports land]" and she was really confused about a basketball team from the Yukon. Goooo Fighting Mounties!
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Yes-- Flatlander-- i alway like the trouble out of towner have with SUNY and CUNY (Sue -knee and Coo -knee) the State Universiy and the City University systems in NY..
out west it's all UCLA, or UCSC, here its "Stony Brook, SUNY, and SUNY Bingington..with the SUNY moving positions, even though it should be SUNY first (state university of n y at ....) and in NY, CUNY exist, as a system, but no one "goes" to CUNY-- they always just name the college. (I go to John Jay, or I'm at Leman )
Sparteye-- how is done in Michigan-- Is Anne Arbor more important (vs Kalamazoo?) or is MSU-- (as in MSU at anne arbor... ?
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I've also noticed that in the US, the abbreviations leave out the "of" whereas we leave them in (for the most part): U of M (Manitoba) not UM, U of T (Toronto) not UT, U of A (Alberta) not UA, etc. Rarely just letters (although there are a few - UBC, and my school, MUN). Sometimes the name is chopped off and "university" left out so you have Dal for Dalhousie, Mac for MacMaster, etc.
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they played UConn … a basketball team from the Yukon
Of course the confusion is all cleared up when it is revealed that the team nickname of the University of Connecticut is the Huskies
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Sparteye-- how is done in Michigan-- Is Anne Arbor more important (vs Kalamazoo?) or is MSU-- (as in MSU at anne arbor... ?
Ack!!! Blech!!!! Never shall the hallowed and beautious Michigan State sully itself through location in [I shutter as I type this] Ann Arbor.
There is no overarching "Michigan University system." Several state universities in Michigan are created in the Michigan Constitution and have independently elected governing boards. Both Michigan State, located in East Lansing, and Michigan, located in Ann Arbor, are such universities. The main - and until very recently, only - campuses are in EL and AA, respectively. Any other embodiments, like Michigan's Dearborn campus, are barely acknowledged outside their immediate area, and so when someone refers to Michigan State or Michigan, only the EL or AA campus is understood.
Other division I schools in Michigan are: Western Michigan (WMU), Eastern Michigan (EMU), Central Michigan (CMU), [we're consistent, if not creative] Oakland, and Detroit (UD). There are many others, but they don't count because they don't play division I basketball.
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So Terror is the thought that Of troy might refer to your university
Horror is when she has actual done it...
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Speaking of Canadian schools, I love the abbreviated name of one of the Universities in Montreal -- UQAM, pronounced as a word: OO-kwam.
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So Terror is the thought that Of troy might refer to your university
Horror is when she has actual done it...
More accurately, terror is the threat that someone will mistakenly think that Michigan State is in Ann Arbor. Horror is the realization that someone thinks Ohio State is in Ann Arbor.
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Yale is "Eli" also "Yalie" They all have nicknames except Harvard which is always Harvard and everybody thinks it's in Boston when actually it's in Cambridge and the Stadium is in the next town !! Just wondering : University of Oxford called OU ?
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Okay, you-all, I put it the way I did, mainly as a private joke to someone, who did get it, but also as a mild tweak to see if anyone would get properly outraged. And it worked, she noted! No, we never say the UK, though we do say the University of Kentucky. Interestingly, the University of Louisville is never UL,
except in logos; spoken, it is always U of L.
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[green}Just wondering : University of Oxford called OU ? [/green}
It certainly is! And never ever called University of Oxford - always Oxford University.
Cambridge University follows the same format, (so does Durham, I think.) The other venerable and venerated Institution in the UK is that great Scottish Uni, the University of St. Andrews: trust the Scots to do it differently!
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It IS, Rhuby? Strange, I've never heard it so named. OU always stands for Open University in the conversations I have seen, as the largest Uni in Europe. I have only ever heard reference to Oxford - rarely pure, never simple
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While we are talking about Universities, how about a discussion of the origin of the term;. I have heard several, which I do not remember accurately.
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Re: Second-language writers: WON & paulb, yep, those are the two who stand out (yes, Conrad was obvious, but gee whiz, give a girl® a break ). And then there is Samuel Beckett - but he wrote in French.
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