Holy vs. Unholy Terror

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, Martha. This is Alex from Redondo Beach, California.

Do you have a question for us?

Oh, yes, I will certainly do.

We have an 11-month-old daughter, and she has a penchant for throwing things and dropping things on the floor.

And grabbing things she isn’t supposed to, like 11-month-old children are supposed to do.

My girlfriend calls her a holy terror.

When I asked her to clarify the meaning, she said it was a euphemism for the devil.

I insisted that it should be then unholy terror.

We argued about it for a while, and I decided to contact the experts to settle the argument and find out the origin and the meaning of the expression.

And if it is a substitution for the devil, shouldn’t it be unholy rather than holy?

That’s a big ticket you’re asking there.

And you didn’t want to fight in front of the girl, right?

That’s the whole reason to come to us.

That’s right.

So one of you, which one of you says that that means it’s a euphemism for the devil?

My girlfriend does.

But your little angel isn’t a devil, really, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little angel that destroys a lot of stuff, you know.

Right, right.

Aren’t they all?

Here’s what’s happening in this case. Holy isn’t holy. It doesn’t mean consecrated.

It doesn’t mean consecrated any more than honking big diamond ring means the ring is beeping and hooting its way through traffic.

Holy, like honking, is an intensifier. All it does is mean more terror.

And actually, we’re not even really talking about real terror, are we?

No, not really.

We’re not talking about a real terror.

I mean, a real terror is like a mudslide or an asteroid hitting the Earth.

That’s a real terror.

Right.

So we’re not actually talking about the devil here.

And it’s actually, all it is a way of saying is that she’s a terror,

Which means that she wreaks havoc on the world.

And actually, that in itself is kind of joking and jocular.

And you don’t even really mean that.

It’s not like she’s burning down buildings or, you know, running through town,

Shooting people or something like that.

She’s an 11-month-old.

Right, right.

Yeah, I thought it was something like, you know,

When people drop negating suffixes from, say,

I could care less versus saying I couldn’t care less.

Because, you know, she said it was the devil.

Not a bad guess.

It really isn’t a bad guess because sometimes these expressions get passed down,

And it’s only when you look at them closely that you start to realize,

Hey, there’s something interesting happening here.

So it’s not a euphemism for the devil then.

No, no, it’s not.

I mean, it’s an exaggeration.

Yeah, an exaggeration.

It’s an exaggeration.

That’s right.

It’s meant to be a funny and kind exaggeration.

The same way you might call a good friend, you know, if you see him on the street and you haven’t seen him in a couple of years, you might say, oh, there you are, your old SOB.

How nice to see you.

You don’t really mean he’s an SOB.

It’s just a way of jokingly showing that you have a really close connection to this person and you recognize that everything they do in the world isn’t perfect, but you still love them all the same.

Right.

Well, Alex, it sounds like you have your hands full, but I’m sure happily so.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you for calling. Bye-bye.

Okay. Bye-bye.

If you’ve got a question about language, grammar, usage, spelling, pronunciation,

Old sayings, or something that Grandma used to say, give us a call.

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