scandal

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An event that shocks people and damages the reputation of those involved.

   The corruption scandal forced the minister to resign.

2. 2
   noun

   Talk that spreads damaging or shameful claims about people's private lives.

   The magazine is full of celebrity scandal.

3. 3
   noun

   A feeling of shock and anger at something seen as wrong or improper.

   It is a scandal that so many children go hungry.

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 Old Northern French escandle, 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…

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