abominable, a. (and adv.)
(əˈbɒmɪnəb(ə)l)
Also 4–7 abhominable.
[a. Fr. abominable, abhominable ad. L. abōminābil-is deserving imprecation or abhorrence; f. abōminā-ri to deprecate as an ill omen; f. ab off, away + ōmen; cf. the exclamation ‘ab-sīt ōmen!’ In med.L. and OFr., and in Eng. from Wyclif to 17th c., regularly spelt abhominable, and explained as ab homine, quasi ‘away from man, inhuman, beastly,’ a derivation which influenced the use and has permanently affected the meaning of the word. No other spelling occurs in the first folio of Shakespeare, which has the word 18 times; and in L.L.L. v. i. 27, Holophernes abhors the ‘rackers of ortagriphie,’ who were beginning to write abominable for the time-honoured abhominable.]
A. adj.
1. Exciting disgust and hatred, generally by evident ill qualities, physical or moral; offensive, loathsome; odious, execrable, detestable. a. Of things.
| 1366 Mandeville (1839) ix. 101 The abhomynable Synne of Sodomye. 1382 Wyclif 1 Mac. i. 57 Kyng Antiochus beeldide the abominable [1388 abhominable] ydol of desolacioun. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xci. 840 The frogge is venemouse and abhomynable therefore to men. 1535 Fisher Wks. (1876) 373 Askyng of him mercy for your abhominable offences. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. i. 27 Neighbour vocatur nebour; neigh abreuiated ne: this is abhominable, which he would call abbominable. 1603 ― Meas. for M. iii. ii. 25 From their abhominable and beastly touches. 1611 Bible Lev. vii. 21 Any vncleane beast, or any abominable vncleane thing. 1661 E. Pagitt Heresiog. 91 The authors of this opinion that set Prayers are abhominable. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 465 This infernal pit, Abominable, accursed, the house of woe. 1756 Burke Vind. Nat. Soc. Wks. I. 76 Shall we pass by this monstrous heap of absurd notions, and abominable practices? 1876 H. N. Humphreys Coin Coll. Man. xxiv. 337 The abominable profligacy of her character did not prevent a servile senate from conferring divine honours upon her. |
b. Of persons.
| 1382 Wyclif Titus i. 16 Thei ben abomynable [1388 abhominable] and vnbyleveful, and reprouable to al good werk. 1535 Coverdale Wisd. xiv. 9 For the vngodly & his vngodlynes are both like abhominable vnto God. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 163 The poore Monster's in drinke: An abhominable Monster. 1619 T. Taylor Titus i. 16. 324 The miserable condition of the hypocrite; Hee is an abhominable person. 1668 Culpeper & Cole tr. Bartholinus Anat. i. xxviii. 70 A young woman the Wife of an abominable Taylor. 1878 B. Taylor Deukalion i. iv. 36 Distinct, abominable, I see ourselves before the Titans were. |
c. Abominable Snowman, name applied to a creature alleged to exist in the Himalayas. (Cf. yeti.)
| 1921 Times 31 Oct. 10/6 The men were never seen..but footprints were found which were suspected of being those made by these men, who are apparently known to the Tibetans as Meetoh Kangmi, or ‘Abominable Snowmen’, and small colonies of these people are believed to exist on the slopes of Everest, Chumalhari, and Karola. 1955 Ann. Reg. 1954 A British party which set out to investigate the Abominable Snowman or Yeti found that legendary creature most elusive and returned with only a few more photographs of footprints. |
2. loosely. Very unpleasant or distasteful.
| 1860 Tyndall Glaciers i. §27. 218 The rain was pitiless and the road abominable. 1874 Black Pr. of Thule 37 Sheila had nothing to do with the introduction of this abominable decoration. |
B. as adv.
| 1477 Norton Ordin. Alch. (1652) v. 73 For they maie be abhominable sower, Over-sharpe, too bitter. |
¶ abominable has occasionally been used, like terrible, prodigious, as a simple intensive. Juliana Berners (15th c.) writes of ‘a bomynable syght of monks,’ i.e. a large company. Cf. abomination 5 and abominationly.