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.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Scandal is recorded from Middle English and goes back to Latin scandalum, “cause of offence,” from Greek skandalon, “snare” or “stumbling block.” It was originally a Christian term for conduct by a religious person that discredited the faith, and then for something that hindered belief. The broader sense of an event causing public outrage dates from the late 16th century.

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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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary