abomination

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English abhominacioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman abhominacion and Middle French abomination (“horror, disgust”),^[4][2][5] and directly borrowed from Late Latin abōminātiō (“detestation, loathing”),^[3][4][2][6] from the past participle stem of abōminor (“to shun as an ill omen, detest”),^[3][4][5][7] from ab- (“away from”) and ōmen (“omen”).^[3][5][8] The French word is recorded from about 1120 in Old French.^[4] In Medieval Latin, French and English the word was often spelled with an inserted h, as if from Latin ab (“away from”) and homō (“man”), that is, "inhuman".^[9][3][8] The phrase abomination of desolation follows the Vulgate's Ecclesiastical Latin abominatio desolationis.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both a feeling of disgust and hatred, and a loathsome or wicked act: about 1350, in a Middle English prose psalter.^[4][5] Etymonline dates "abominable thing or action" to the early 14th century and "feeling of disgust" to the late 14th.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the Wycliffite Bible (about 1384) the word meant a detested thing,^[4] and in biblical use it often meant what was ceremonially impure;^[3] the phrase abomination of desolation, an idol or a cause of desecration, is from the same Bible.^[4] The mistaken link with Latin homō strengthened the meaning to something like "beastly";^[3] Wycliffe and Chaucer both wrote abhominacioun, and Shakespeare mocked the spelling abhominable in Love's Labour's Lost.^[3][8] From about 1400 to 1582 the word also meant physical revulsion or nausea,^[4] and in 1604 it was briefly used colloquially for a disagreeably large sum of money.^[4] Johnson (1755) listed "hatred, detestation", as in to have in abomination, before "the object of hatred".^[10] It is also used in a weakened sense for a merely disagreeable thing or practice.^[4][2] The United States Tariff of Abominations, whose high protective duties offended the South, was passed in 1828.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – a feeling of disgust and hatred; a loathsome or wicked act.^[4][5]
• c. 1384 – a detested thing, and abomination of desolation, an idol.^[4]
• before 1398 – physical revulsion, nausea (obsolete by 1582).^[4]
• c. 1425 – a state of corruption or defilement.^[4]
• 1604 – a disagreeably large amount of money (obsolete).^[4]
• 1828 – the Tariff of Abominations in the United States.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something or someone that causes disgust or hatred: The new car park is an abomination.^[11][2][4]
2. A wicked or vile act or practice.^[11][2][4]
3. Intense loathing; detestation: She held cruelty to animals in abomination.^[11][2][4]
4. abomination of desolation: in the Bible, an idol or a desecration of a holy place.^[4][2]

Related words

• abominable
• abominate
• omen
• ominous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ 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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins