ignominy

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French ignominie, from Latin ignōminia, from ig- (“not”) + nomen (“name”) (prefix assimilated form of in-).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: ĭgʹnə-mĭn'ē, IPA^(key): /ˈɪɡnəˌmɪni/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɪɡnəˌmɪni/, /ˈɪɡnəməni/, /ɪɡˈnɑməni/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

ignominy (countable and uncountable, plural ignominies)

1. Great dishonor, shame, or humiliation.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 62:

     But like Czar Peter content to toil in the shipyards of foreign cities, Queequeg disdained no seeming ignominy, if thereby he might happily gain the power of enlightening his untutored countrymen.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC:

     Bradly came out from hiding with a dyspeptic grunt, too depressed by ignominy to send a curse after the old woman.

   • a. 1994, Bill Watterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, Andrews McMeel, →ISBN, page 168:

     Calvin: Our great plan backfired and I'm the one who got soaked! Oh, the shame! The ignominy!

   • 2014 November 18, Daniel Taylor, “England and Wayne Rooney see off Scotland in their own back yard”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     It was tribal, almost relentless and, in the case of the official England band, there was a degree of ignominy, too, for repeatedly playing a tune for which the words go “Fuck the IRA”, something that could lead to a full breakdown of their relationship with the FA.

   • 2018 May 22, Liz Robbins, Maya Salam, “‘I Am Not Racist’: Lawyer Issues Apology One Week After Rant”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     The lawyer who shot to ignominy last week with a racist rant at a Manhattan lunch spot apologized Tuesday on social media, where a video of his threat to call immigration agents on Spanish-speaking workers had first gone viral.

   • 2022 May 23, “Russian diplomat in Switzerland says he resigns over Ukraine invasion”, in Reuters‎^[3], archived from the original on 26 May 2022, Europe:

     "I studied to be a diplomat and have been a diplomat for twenty years," Bondarev wrote. "The (Russian foreign) ministry has become my home and family. But I simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witless and absolutely needless ignominy."

Related terms

• ignominious

Translations

great dishonor, shame, or humiliation

• Bulgarian: срам (bg) m (sram), позор (bg) m (pozor)
• Catalan: ignomínia f
• Dutch: schaamte (nl)
• Finnish: häpeä (fi), häpeällinen teko
• French: ignominie (fr) f
• German: Schmach (de) m, Schande (de) f, Schändlichkeit f, Unaussprechlichkeit (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀτιμία f (atimía)

• Hungarian: gyalázat (hu)
• Italian: ignominia (it) f, infamia (it) f
• Latin: ignominia
• Norwegian: skjensel m, vanære (no) m, skam (no) m

  Bokmål: vanære (no) m or f, skam (no) m or f

• Plautdietsch: Schaund f
• Portuguese: ignomínia (pt) f
• Romanian: ignominie (ro) f
• Russian: бесче́стие (ru) n (besčéstije), позо́р (ru) m (pozór), срам (ru) m (sram)
• Spanish: ignominia (es)
• Swedish: vanära (sv), skam (sv), nesa (sv), skymf (sv), smälek (sv)
• Turkish: alçaklık (tr), rezalet (tr)
• Ukrainian: безче́стя (uk) n (bezčéstja), ганьба́ (uk) f (hanʹbá)