Well, according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary (American-centric), "monster" is still a technical, official medical, term for those born with certain physical deformities (or biological term, if we're talking about non-human living things, such as plants).
The root of the word goes back to Latin, and the ancient Roman religion, and the word "monstrum," for "omen," or "sign" (same word root in "Demonstrate" and "Monitor" because it was believed that animals or humans born with missing or extra limbs were taken as signs that a calamity would fall on the community.
So it makes sense, if that's your underlying belief system, that the birth of a "monster" in your village would make you afraid, because then, you'd have to start worrying about when the king was going to die, or whether you'd be hit with a famine. But even in that very earliest meaning of the word, there's no sense that the "monsters," themselves, are hateful, or angry -- they're just the messengers of the presumed divine wrath. Still, you'd think it would be in your best interest to hide the monsters really well, so the gods don't see which villages they sent them to, and maybe they'll forget their plans for a plague of locusts, or whatever.
...And even though "modern science" has abandoned that explanation for deformities and disabilities, they still rely on that practice for their "Standard treatment." That's why I think of doctors as one of the most superstitious lots working today. If it weren't for their fancy degrees and chrome-plated technology, they'd probably be classed with the tinfoil hat brigade, a lot of the time.
Re: Some early-morning, highly caffinated, thoughts
The root of the word goes back to Latin, and the ancient Roman religion, and the word "monstrum," for "omen," or "sign" (same word root in "Demonstrate" and "Monitor" because it was believed that animals or humans born with missing or extra limbs were taken as signs that a calamity would fall on the community.
So it makes sense, if that's your underlying belief system, that the birth of a "monster" in your village would make you afraid, because then, you'd have to start worrying about when the king was going to die, or whether you'd be hit with a famine. But even in that very earliest meaning of the word, there's no sense that the "monsters," themselves, are hateful, or angry -- they're just the messengers of the presumed divine wrath. Still, you'd think it would be in your best interest to hide the monsters really well, so the gods don't see which villages they sent them to, and maybe they'll forget their plans for a plague of locusts, or whatever.
...And even though "modern science" has abandoned that explanation for deformities and disabilities, they still rely on that practice for their "Standard treatment." That's why I think of doctors as one of the most superstitious lots working today. If it weren't for their fancy degrees and chrome-plated technology, they'd probably be classed with the tinfoil hat brigade, a lot of the time.