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“abominable”
abominable (adjective)
1. Loathsome, extremely repugnant, or offensive: "Murder is certainly the most abominable crime in existence."
3. A bad omen; nasty and disgusting; vile; loathsome: "The flood included abominable sewerage that was flowing into the basements and ground-floor rooms of the houses."
Word History
"Nathan had the abominable habit of chewing his fingernails in public."
2. Extremely unpleasant or of very bad quality, or very unpleasant to experience: "The abominable food that was served in that restaurant tasted terrible and you can be sure that we will never go there again."3. A bad omen; nasty and disgusting; vile; loathsome: "The flood included abominable sewerage that was flowing into the basements and ground-floor rooms of the houses."
Between the 14th and the 17th centuries, abominable was often spelled abhominable, because of a widely held belief that it was derived from Latin ab hominem; literally, "away from humankind", therefore "unnatural, beastly". Shakespeare puns on this sense when Hamlet speaks of incompetent actors who "imitate humanity abominably."
Word Entries at Get Words:
“abominable”
abominable (uh BOM uh nuh buhl) (adjective)
1. Murder is the most abominable (reprehensible, loathsome) crime.
2. The weather was abominable (miserable, lousy).
3. That the homeless were forced out of the shelter this winter was abominable (horrible, awful).
2. The weather was abominable (miserable, lousy).
3. That the homeless were forced out of the shelter this winter was abominable (horrible, awful).
"Abominable" is derived from Latin abominari, "to detest something as an ill omen".
From the 14th until the 17th century, the word was spelled abhominable because people thought it came from the Latin phrase ab homine, meaning "away from man", and so, "inhuman, beastly".
This misunderstanding permanently affected the meaning of the word.
This entry is located in the following unit:
English Words in Action, Group A +
(page 3)