scandal
/sˈkændəl/SKAN-duhl
/sˈkændəl/SKAN-duhl
Meaninga stumbling block
Common meaning: a disgraceful event causing outrage
- scandala trap; a thing that trips one upLiddell & Scott, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (1889), p. 731 · scan
Journey through time
- Aryan root · reconstructed√SKAND‘spring, spring up, climb’No written record; from Skeat’s list of Aryan roots, no. 400, p. 744 · scan
- Greekσκάνδαλον‘a trap’
- Latinscandalum
- Frenchscandale
- Old Frenchescandlesource
- Middle Englishscandalsource
- Englishmeaning shiftsa trap → a disgraceful event causing outragescandal‘a disgraceful event causing outrage’ · today
scandal also in: slander
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Built on Greek σκάνδαλον ‘a trap; a thing that trips one up’.
Did you know: our wording, based on Skeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), entry SLANDER, p. 560 · dictionary scan
Roots
- σκάνδαλον Greek “a trap; a thing that trips one up”
Related words
Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app