Think of terrific as a size word before it is a praise word: whatever it touches is off the normal scale — a terrific bang, a terrific speed, a terrific headache. The reaction it describes is the small you make when something is far bigger than you expected. Praise is what happens when that turns friendly.
From the word’s history
From Latin terrificus 'causing terror or fear, frightful' (terrere 'to fill with fear' + facere 'to make'). English used it for 'terrifying' from the 1660s; the weakened sense 'very great, severe, excessive' (a terrific headache) is recorded by 1809, and the inverted colloquial sense 'excellent' by 1888 — the same softening that happened to awful and terrible.
源自拉丁文 terrificus「令人恐懼的」（terrere 使人害怕 + facere 使成為），1660 年代進英文時就是「可怕的」。到 1809 年語氣轉弱，變成「非常大、非常劇烈」（a terrific headache）；1888 年再翻轉成口語的「棒極了」。這條線也解釋了為什麼 terrific 和 terrible、terror 長得像卻走到相反的方向——awful 也走過同一段路。
Etymonline, entry 'terrific' (etymonline.com/word/terrific)
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原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
terrificadj
- 1
archaicCausing terror; terrifying.
- [T]he diſmal ſhrieks of demoniac rage […] rouſed phantoms of horror in her mind, far more terrific than all that dreaming ſuperſtition ever drew.
- Think of wandering amid sepulchral ruins, of stumbling over the bones of the dead, of encountering what I cannot describe,—the horror of being among those who are neither the living or the dead;—those dark and shadowless things that sport themselves with the reliques of the dead, and feast and love amid corruption,—ghastly, mocking, and terrific.
- 2
Very strong or intense; excessive, tremendous.
- The car came round the bend at a terrific speed.
- I've got a terrific hangover this morning.
- 3
Extremely good; excellent, amazing.
- I say! She's a terrific tennis player.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。