petrify
/ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ/
Etymology
From Middle French pétrifier, from Medieval Latin petrificāre, from Latin petra (“rock”), from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”) + -ficāre, from facere (“do, make”), equivalent to petro- + -ify.
petrify means to turn to stone: to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
petrify is pronounced /ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ/.
Why “petrify” is a great word
PETRIFY — [Verb] To paralyze with terror, or to convert organic material into stone. From Middle French pétrifier, from Medieval Latin petrificāre, from Latin petra ("rock", from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, "rock")) + -ficāre, from facere ("to make, to do"). First attested in English c. 1590s. Unlike "terrify," which suggests a storm of fear one might yet flee, or "fossilize," which implies a gradual, preservative replacement over eons, "petrify" captures a swift and total arrest—of body or of being. It is the Medusan gaze that turns flesh to marble; the log whose every cell is replaced by glittering quartz; the witness rooted to the floorboards by a sound in the dark. The word is a testament to the moment life, in fear or in fact, becomes monument.
verb
- To turn to stone: to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.“a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves”
- To produce rigidity akin to stone.
- To immobilize with fright.
- To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
- To become stony, callous, or obdurate.“Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief.”
- To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.“petrify a genius to a dunce”