abominable

Word family

• abominably
  adverbC1
• abomination
  nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Abominable, terrible, awful, dreadful, appalling, and atrocious all describe something very bad, but they carry different weights and contexts. Terrible and awful are everyday words used for anything disappointing or unpleasant — a terrible film, an awful headache. Dreadful adds a slightly old-fashioned, British flavour and often describes experiences that cause fear or suffering — dreadful news, a dreadful accident. Appalling sits between dreadful and abominable: it suggests shock at something that should have been better — appalling service, appalling ignorance. Abominable is stronger still, implying the thing is so bad it is almost beyond tolerating — abominable weather, an abominable smell. Atrocious overlaps with abominable but often emphasises cruelty or savage behaviour, pushing it toward the moral horror of abominable sense 2 — atrocious violence. When you call the hotel bathroom 'abominable,' you are saying it was not just bad but shockingly, intolerably foul.

Common collocations

Etymology

Abominable comes from the Latin word abominabilis, meaning 'worthy of being avoided as an ill omen.' This was formed from the verb abominari — 'to deprecate as an ill omen' — which combines ab- ('away from') with omen ('portent, sign'). The word entered English in the 14th century via Old French abominable. In medieval Latin, a folk etymology wrongly connected the word to ab homine ('away from man, inhuman'), which reinforced its sense of something morally repugnant. Over time, the word broadened from 'causing horror or disgust' to also mean simply 'very bad or unpleasant.'