odium

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin odium (“ill will, hatred, grudge; offence”),^[2][3][4][5] from the stem of ōdī (“I hate”).^[2][6][7] Barnhart and Klein trace that verb to Proto-Indo-European *od- (“to hate”),^[3][5] and Etymonline gives the noun as *eod-io- (“hatred”).^[4] It is compared with Ancient Greek ὀδύσσομαι (odússomai, “to be angry at, to hate”),^[3][5][4] which Klein calls only perhaps related,^[5] and with Old English atol (“dire, horrid”) and Old Norse atall (“fierce, loathsome”).^[3][5][4][8] The OED mentions only a verb for hating in Armenian as a possible cognate.^[2] Klein adds that the base may in origin be the same as the base meaning "to smell",^[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also suggests a link with Latin odor.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fact of being hated: 1602, in William Warner's Albion's England.^[2][3][8] Dictionary.com gives the range 1595–1605, and Etymonline says about 1600.^[9][4]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense looks at the person or thing exposed to hatred, and the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged still list it first.^[2][8] The feeling itself, hatred or contempt in the person who hates, is recorded from 1645 by the OED, and Etymonline says the 1650s.^[2][4] Also from 1645 the word meant the disgrace attached to an act.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "invidiousness; quality of provoking hate", quoting King Charles and Dryden.^[10] The phrase odium theologicum, the hatred proverbially found in theological disputes, is dated to the 1670s by Etymonline.^[4][6] For a time, from 1681 to 1719, the word could also mean the object of hatred.^[2]

Timeline

• 1602 – the state of being hated.^[2][3][8]
• 1645 – hatred, dislike, contempt as a feeling.^[2] Etymonline dates this to the 1650s.^[4]
• 1645 – the reproach or shame attached to an act.^[2]
• 1670s – odium theologicum, the hatred of theological disputes.^[4]
• 1681 – an object of hatred (obsolete by 1719).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being widely hated or condemned: He bore the odium of the failed strike for years.^[11][8][2]
2. Strong hatred or contempt felt toward someone blamed for an act.^[11][8][2]
3. The shame or disgrace attached to an act; opprobrium.^[2][6]

Related words

• odious
• annoy
• noisome

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins