loathsome

English

Alternative forms

• loathesome

Etymology

From Middle English lothsum, from Old English *lāþsum, from Proto-West Germanic *laiþsam, equivalent to loath +‎ -some. Cognate with Middle Low German lêtsam (“arduous”), German leidsam (“sad, sorry”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈləʊð.səm/, /ˈləʊθ.səm/

Adjective

loathsome (comparative more loathsome, superlative most loathsome)

1. Highly offensive; abominable, sickening.
   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XX, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.; Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., OCLC 34363729, page 334:

     Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "loathsome" is often applied: disease, creature, thing, person, man, woman, dungeon, place, world, smell, act.

Derived terms

• loathsomely
• loathsomeness
• unloathsome

Translations

highly offensive; abominable, sickening

• Arabic: سافل‎
• Bulgarian: противен (bg) (protiven), отвратителен (bg) (otvratitelen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 憎惡 (zh), 憎恶 (zh) (zēngwù, zēng'è)

• Esperanto: abomeninda, abomena (eo)
• Finnish: inhottava (fi)
• French: odieux (fr), dégoûtant (fr)
• Galician: noxento m
• German: ekelhaft (de), abscheulich (de), scheußlich (de), widerlich (de), widerwärtig (de), verabscheuenswürdig, verhasst (de), verrucht (de), abgrundhässlich (de)
• Greek: απαίσιος (el) m (apaísios), επάρατος (el) m (epáratos)

  Ancient: βδελυρός (bdelurós), βδελυκτός (bdeluktós)

  Doric: βδελυχρός (bdelukhrós)

• Italian: laido (it)
• Latin: taeter
• Maori: wetiweti
• Norman: r'pugnant
• Romanian: detestabil (ro), odios (ro), dezgustător (ro)
• Russian: отврати́тельный (ru) (otvratítelʹnyj), омерзи́тельный (ru) (omerzítelʹnyj), отта́лкивающий (ru) (ottálkivajuščij), га́дкий (ru) (gádkij), проти́вный (ru) (protívnyj)
• Spanish: aborrecible (es), detestable (es), odioso (es) m, abominable (es), repugnante (es), nefando (es) m, execrable (es), asqueroso (es)
• Portuguese: nojento (pt), repugnante (pt), abominável (pt), asqueroso (pt), desprezível (pt), detestável (pt),

Further reading

• loathsome in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• loathsome in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• loathsome at OneLook Dictionary Search