abominable

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   unequivocally detestable

   Abominable treatment of prisoners.

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Simplified etymology

Abominable entered English in the Middle English period from Latin abominari, “to regard as a bad omen.” A mistaken association with Latin ab-, “away from,” and homo, “human being,” led to the former spelling abhominable and the false interpretation “inhuman” or “beastly.”

From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Late Latin abōminābilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from abōminor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ōminor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ōmen (“sign, token, omen”). Formerly erroneously folk-etymologized as deriving from Latin ab- + homo, literally "away from humankind," and therefore spelled abhominable, abhominal (Hence, Shakespeare puns on this when Hamlet speaks of incompetent actors that "imitate humanity abominably.")

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