scandal

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English

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Etymology

From Middle French scandale (“indignation caused by misconduct or defamatory speech”), from Ecclesiastical Latin scandalum (“that on which one trips, cause of offense”, literally “stumbling block”), from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon, “a trap laid for an enemy, a cause of moral stumbling”), from Proto-Indo-European *skand- (“to jump”). Cognate with Latin scandō (“to climb”). First attested from Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language, etymology language or family code; the value "ONF." is not valid. See WT:LOL, WT:LOL/E and WT:LOF., but the modern word is a reborrowing. Doublet, via Old French esclandre, of slander.

Sense evolution from "cause of stumbling, that which causes one to sin, stumbling block" to "discredit to reputation, that which brings shame, thing of disgrace" is possibly due to early influence from other similar sounding words for infamy and disgrace (compare Old English scand (“ignominity, scandal, disgraceful thing”), Old High German scanda (“ignominy, disgrace”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰 (skanda, “shame, disgrace”)). See shand, shend.

Pronunciation

Noun

scandal (countable and uncountable, plural scandals)

  1. An incident or event that disgraces or damages the reputation of the persons or organization involved.
    Their affair was reported as a scandal by most tabloids.
  2. Damage to one's reputation.
    The incident brought considerable scandal to his family.
  3. Widespread moral outrage, indignation, as over an offence to decency.
    When their behaviour was made public it caused a great scandal.
  4. (theology) Religious discredit; an act or behaviour which brings a religion into discredit.
  5. (theology) Something which hinders acceptance of religious ideas or behaviour; a stumbling-block or offense.
  6. Defamatory talk; gossip, slander.
    According to village scandal, they weren't even married.
    • 1855, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, chapter 1
      Scandal at Barchester affirmed that had it not been for the beauty of his daughter, Mr. Harding would have remained a minor canon; but here probably Scandal lied, as she so often does; for even as a minor canon no one had been more popular among his reverend brethren in the close, than Mr. Harding; and Scandal, before she had reprobated Mr. Harding for being made precentor by his friend the bishop, had loudly blamed the bishop for having so long omitted to do something for his friend Mr. Harding.

Derived terms

Terms derived from scandal

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Translations

Verb

scandal (third-person singular simple present scandals, present participle scandalling or scandaling, simple past and past participle scandalled or scandaled)

  1. (obsolete) To treat opprobriously; to defame; to slander.
  2. (obsolete) To scandalize; to offend.
    • 1855, Robert Potts, Liber Cantabrigiensis
      A propensity to scandal may partly proceed from an inability to distinguish the proper objects of censure

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “scandal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

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