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abominable

Etymology and origin of the English word abominable

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Formation
Borrowing
Borrowed from
Old French abominable

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əˈbɑm.ə.nə.bl̩/, /əˈbɑm.nə.bl̩/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French abominable[2][3][4] and from Late Latin abominabilis (“deserving abhorrence”),[2][3] from the stem of Latin abominari (“to deplore as an evil omen”),[2][3][5] from Latin ab (“off, away from”) and omen, stem omin-.[3][5] The usual Middle English spelling was abhominable,[4][3] a folk etymology that took the word as if from Latin ab homine “away from man”, that is, inhuman or beastly.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Exciting disgust or loathing; morally detestable (mid-14th century; 1340 in Barnhart).[3][2][6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb behind it meant to pray that something ill-omened be averted, and so came to mean to detest.[5][3] The false link with homo “man” gave the word an air of something unnatural or inhuman, and the spelling abhominable lasted into the 17th century.[3] From 1860 it was also used loosely for anything very unpleasant,[6] as in abominable weather.[7] The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas is named in 1921,[6][3] a translation of a Tibetan name.[3]

Timeline

  • 1340 – first recorded.[2]
  • 1366 – of things, exciting disgust and hatred.[6]
  • 1382 – of persons.[6]
  • 1477 – as an adverb, an intensive like terribly.[6]
  • 1860 – loosely, very unpleasant.[6]
  • 1921 – Abominable Snowman.[6][3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Thoroughly hateful; arousing disgust or loathing.
  2. Very unpleasant or disagreeable.
  3. Very bad or inferior in quality.

Word family

  • abominably
  • abominableness
  • abominable snowman
  • abominate
  • abomination
  • omen

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Abominable.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/abominable. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·