scandalous
/ˈskændələs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.28 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of a thing: causing or having the nature of a scandal; regarded as so immoral or wrong as to be extremely disgraceful; despicable, shameful.
adj
Of speech or writing: defamatory, malicious.
adj
adj
Of a person: guilty of extremely disgraceful conduct or some misconduct; infamous; also, unfit for their office or position due to misconduct, etc.
Archaic; Obsolete
adj
Of information, a statement, etc.: not pertinent to a matter; irrelevant, and bringing the court into disrepute.
Example Sentences
- "[S]omthing ſauors / Of Tyrannie, and vvill ignoble make you, / Yea, ſcandalous to the VVorld."
- "Maſters commands come vvith a povver reſiſtleſs / To ſuch as ovve them abſolute ſubjection; / And for a life vvho vvill not change his purpoſe? / (So mutable are all the vvays of men) / Yet this be ſure, in nothing to comply / Scandalous or forbidden in our Lavv."
- "As the vvhole buſineſs, in vvhich the Courts uſually take an intereſt, goes on at preſent equally vvell, in vvhatever hands, vvhether high or lovv, vviſe or fooliſh, ſcandalous or reputable; there is nothing to hold it firm to any one body of men, or to any one conſiſtent scheme of politicks."
- ""I have heard something of such a matter," said the Glover, "and was this instant setting forth to Kinfauns, to plead my innocence of this scandalous charge, to ask your lordship's counsel, and to implore your protection.""
- "The treasurer soon found that, in using scandalous means for the purpose of attaining a laudable end, he had committed, not only a crime, but a folly. The queen was now his enemy."
- "The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out flat-footed and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the children that way."
Etymology
From Late Middle English scandalouse (“disgraceful, shameful”), borrowed from Old French scandaleux (“scandalous”) (modern French scandaleux), from Medieval Latin scandalōsus, from Ecclesiastical Latin scandalum (“scandal”) + Latin -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; prone to’ forming adjectives). Scandalum is derived from Ancient Greek σκᾰ́νδᾰλον (skắndălon, “offence, scandal; snare, trap”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Pre-Greek or Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump”) (referring to a device for climbing or jumping on, such as might be used by someone setting a trap). By surface analysis, scandal + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, denoting presence of a quality in any degree (typically an abundance), or a relation to the nouns).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *skend-, scandalouse, scandaleux, scandalōsus, scandalum, -ōsus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈskændələs/
- British English: /ˈskændələs/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more scandalous (comparative)
most scandalous (superlative)