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abominable: msg#00027

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: abominable

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The Word of the Day for July 28 is:

abominable \uh-BAH-muh-nuh-bul\ adjective
1 : worthy of or causing disgust or hatred : detestable
*2 : quite disagreeable or unpleasant

Example sentence:
"I imagine it must be a relief to receive another letter
from me written on a typewriter, for ... my handwriting has been
abominable for several years past." (Alexander Woollcott,
_Letters_)

Did you know?
The tendency to hate evil omens is a vital part of the
history of "abominable." The word descends from the Latin
verb "abominari," which means "to deprecate as an ill omen"
or "to detest"; "abominari" itself comes from "ab-" plus "omin-"
("from an omen"). When English speakers adopted "abominable" in
the 14th century, they used it to express their disgust over
evil or truly detestable things -- and for 500 years that's the
way things stood. In the 1800s, the word's meaning moderated, so
that Scottish novelist William Black could write in _A Princess
of Thule_ (1873), "Sheila had nothing to do with the
introduction of this abominable decoration." Other descendents
of "abominari" are "abominate" ("to hate or loathe intensely")
and "abomination" ("something odious or detestable").

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.






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