One way to hold this word: a face you do not dare look straight at. In the old stories the hair is made of live snakes, and one look turns you to stone. Everything the word does later comes from that frozen moment in front of a face.
可以想成：一張你不敢正眼看的臉。故事裡那張臉長著活蛇當頭髮，看一眼就會變成石頭。所以這個字帶著的不只是「醜」，而是「被嚇到動不了」。後來英文把同一張臉搬到現實裡，用來說一個讓人不敢靠近的女人。
From the word’s history
Middle English gorgon, from Latin Gorgō, from Ancient Greek Γοργώ (Gorgṓ), built on γοργός (gorgós) meaning 'terrible'. The root already meant frightening before any snakes were attached to it.
這個字從古希臘文 Γοργώ 來，字根 γοργός 的意思就是「可怕的」，再經拉丁文 Gorgō、中古英文進入英文。也就是說，「可怕」是字裡本來就有的東西，蛇髮和石化是故事替它畫出來的畫面。
Wiktionary, "gorgon"
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