"Horrible" as a noun?

[Joel S. Berson]

For coinage, the OED (2nd edition, and probably
for that reason not containing any instances after Conan Doyle in 1917), has:

horrible, B. n.
   A horrible person or thing; †a being inspiring
awe or dread (quot. c1475 at sense C.); a
horrible attribute or characteristic; a story of
horrible crime or the like (cf. dreadful n.).
c1540    Destr. Troy 13260   An old temple..I
founde, Of a god, þat with gomes was gretly
honouret. At þat orribill I asket angardly myche,
Of dethe, & of deire, as destyny willes.
1726    D. Defoe Polit. Hist. Devil ii. vi.
265   Among all the Horribles that we dress up Satan in.
1851    H. Melville Moby-Dick xxxix. 188   Such a
waggish leering as lurks in all you horribles!
...
1917    A. Conan Doyle His Last Bow i. 51   There
is but one step from the grotesque to the horrible.

Joel

At 1/25/2011 07:39 PM, Jocelyn Limpert wrote:

>I've been informed that "horrible" is being used as a noun in a soon-to-be
>published book, a possible best seller.
>
>Does anyone know who coined this usage and if it is now in fairly common
>usage?  Had anyone heard it much?
>
>I found the following at diffen.com
>
>*horrible as a Noun* The use of "horrible" as a noun is fairly rare. A
>person wearing a funny or gross costume in a parade of
>horribles<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parade_of_horribles>is called
>*a horrible*.
>
>Read more: Horrible vs Horrific - Difference and Comparison |
>Diffen<http://www.diffen.com/difference/Horrible_vs_Horrific#ixzz1C65P7gQK>
>http://www.diffen.com/difference/Horrible_vs_Horrific#ixzz1C65P7gQK
>
>
>I found the following in Wikipedia:
>Noun
>
>*horrible* (*plural*
>*horribles<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/horribles#English>
>*)
>
>    1. A thing that causes horror <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/horror>; a
>    terrifying <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/terrifying> thing, particularly
>    a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
>     [quotations ⭲]
>       - *1851*, Herman Melville, *Moby Dick* *Here's a carcase. I know not
>       all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it
>laughing. Such
>       a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles!*
>       - *1982*, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, *The
>       Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations,
>       United States Senate* *A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by
>       the people objecting to this convention
> ignore the plain language of this
>       treaty.*
>       - *1991*, Alastair Scott, *Tracks Across
> Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey* *The
>       pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales,
>pigs' hearts
>       and a long litany of other horribles.*
>       - *2000*, John Dean, CNN
>interview<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0001/21/ip.00.html>,
>       January 21, 2000: *I'm trying to convince him that the criminal
>       behavior that's going on at the White House has to end. And I
>give him one
>       horrible after the next. I just keep raising them. He sort of swats
>       them away.*
>       - *2001*, Neil K. Komesar, *Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the
>       Supply and Demand of Rights* *Many scholars have demonstrated these
>       horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions.*
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org