gruesome [L16th] Although gruesome first appeared in English in the late 16th century, based on Scots grue ‘to feel horror, shudder’, it was rare before the late 18th century. It was popularized in the novels of Sir Walter Scott: ‘He’s as grave and grewsome an auld Dutchman as e’er I saw’ (Old Mortality, 1816). Grewsome was the more common spelling until around 1850.