ignominious

C2 Topic:People & Society
US /ɪɡ.nəˈmɪ.ni.əs/ UK /ˌɪɡ.nə(ʊ)ˈmɪ.ni.əs/
adj Freq #55377

Meanings

  1. 1
    adj

    Causing or deserving public shame and dishonour.

    The team suffered an ignominious defeat in the first round.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 adj · causing or deserving public... disgracefuldishonourablehumiliatingshameful
Word family
Derived forms ignominiouslyignominiousnessunignominious
Related forms ignominy

Etymology

From Late Middle English ignominious (“disgraceful, shameful”), from Middle French ignominieux (modern French ignominieux), or from its etymon Latin ignōminiōsus (“disgraced; disgraceful, shameful, ignominious”), from ignōminia (“disgrace, dishonour, shame, ignominy”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly; prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). Ignōminia is derived from ig- (variant of in- (prefix meaning not) + nōmen (“name; good name, reputation”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (“name”)) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). By surface analysis, ignominy + -iou…

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