abominable
abo·mi·nable
adjective
- “abominable treatment of prisoners”
- “detestable vices”
- “execrable crimes”
- “consequences odious to those you govern” Edmund Burke
exceptionally bad or displeasing
- “atrocious taste”
- “abominable workmanship”
- “an awful voice”
- “dreadful manners”
- “a painful performance”
- “terrible handwriting”
- “an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room”
Origin
From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Late Latin abōminābilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from abōminor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ōminor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ōmen (“sign, token, omen”). Formerly erroneously folk-etymologized as deriving from Latin ab- + homo, literally "away from humankind," and therefore spelled abhominable, abhominal (Hence, Shakespeare puns on this when Hamlet speaks of incompetent actors that "imitate humanity abominably.")
Phrases
- abominable snow monster
- abominable snowman
- abominable snowperson
Related words
Word family
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.