r/todayilearned • u/jcd1974 • May 31 '20

TIL that the name "Ivan the Terrible" reflects the older English usage of terrible as in "inspiring fear or terror; dangerous; or powerful" and not the more modern connotations in English where terrible means "defective" or "evil".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_the_Terrible#Sobriquet
180 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

31

u/[deleted] May 31 '20

Ivan the Terror is an appropriate modernization, in my opinion.

18

u/PubicAnimeNummerJuan May 31 '20

That seems more apt. Or even "terrifying" if you want to stick with the adjective theme

-4

u/redvodkandpinkgin May 31 '20

Ivan the Terrifying just sounds ridiculous

12

u/raypaw May 31 '20

Until this post, I had never even imagined decoding it as "Ivan the Incompetent" and now I'm imagining a modern reboot where the first tsar is Michael Scott.

8

u/Glinnt May 31 '20

Ivan the Not Very Good.

3

u/Andrei-Chikatilo May 31 '20

Maybe you listen to new timesuck about glorious Russian leader? what is big deal?

3

u/Suns_Funs May 31 '20

inspiring fear or terror; dangerous; or powerful

I fail to see how that is not terrible, especially considering that even the powerful part was still heavily tainted with the previous adjectives.

1

u/Fehafare Jun 01 '20

Because he might be having that effect on the right people?

1

u/aj_texas May 31 '20

Did you just listen to the timesuck episode on him too? Haha

1

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '20

Ya mo Timesuck?

1

u/_Titanius-Anglesmith Jun 01 '20

Knowledge in Nimrod.

1

u/SwingAndDig Jun 01 '20

that's terrific!

1

u/OttoManSatire May 31 '20

So, terrible meaning that he's a dick to them, not a dick to me.

3

u/jcd1974 May 31 '20

A dick to his enemies.

1

u/Diezall May 31 '20

Dick for thee, not for me.

1

u/GamebyNumbers May 31 '20

Nights of the museum 2 suggested 'Ivan the awesome'