abhorrent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin abhorrēns (“shrinking from”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the present participle of abhorreō (“to shrink back from, be averse to, be at variance with”),^[2][3][7] the source of abhor.^[3][4] The verb is formed from ab- (“away from”) and horreō (“to bristle, shudder”),^[2][3][8] which Etymonline derives from Proto-Indo-European *ghers- (“to bristle”).^[3] In post-classical Latin the participle was used as an adjective meaning "repulsive" from the 3rd century.^[2] The OED compares Middle French abhorrent (“divergent, unusual”), recorded from 1534, and in the sense "opposed" from 1564.^[2] Etymonline notes that English earlier had abhorrable, from the late 15th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Shrinking or recoiling with repugnance from something: 1599, in Thomas Nashe's Lenten Stuffe.^[2][6] Etymonline dates the word to the 1610s, with the sense "recoiling from, strongly opposed to",^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1610–20.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The earliest senses followed Latin, in which abhorrēre was less intense than English abhor and meant also to be remote from or out of harmony with something.^[3] So from 1604 abhorrent meant far removed from, or wholly incompatible with, something, senses the OED now calls rare.^[2] The sense "repugnant, hateful" is recorded from 1628,^[2] or from the 1650s according to Etymonline,^[3] and the sense "feeling abhorrence" from 1653.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "struck with abhorrence" and "contrary to, inconsistent with" as its senses.^[10]

Timeline

• 1599 – shrinking or recoiling with repugnance from something (obsolete by 1790).^[2][6]
• 1604 – far removed or divergent from something; wholly incompatible with it.^[2]
• 1628 – repugnant, hateful, detestable.^[2]
• 1653 – feeling or showing abhorrence; full of loathing.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing disgust or loathing; repugnant: She found the treatment of the prisoners abhorrent.^[11][6][2]
2. abhorrent to: in conflict with; incompatible with: a scheme abhorrent to all fairness.^[11][6][2]
3. Feeling or showing abhorrence (of something).^[11][6][2]
4. (archaic) Far removed from, strongly opposed to (used with from).^[6][4][2]

Word family

• abhorrently

Related words

• abhor
• abhorrence
• horror
• horrid
• horrible

Usage notes

Johnson noted that the word was used with from or to, but more properly with from;^[10] in current use abhorrent to means conflicting with, and abhorrent from is archaic.^[11][6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins