abominable
adjective
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The tendency to hate evil omens is a vital part of the history of abominable. The word descends from the Latin verb abominari, which means "to deprecate as an ill omen" or "to detest"; abominari itself comes from ab- plus omin- ("from an omen"). When English speakers adopted abominable in the 14th century, they used it to express their disgust over evil or truly detestable things—and for 500 years that's the way things stood. In the 17th century, the word's meaning moderated, so that Scottish novelist William Black could write in A Princess of Thule (1873), "Sheila had nothing to do with the introduction of this abominable decoration." Other descendants of abominari are abominate ("to hate or loathe intensely") and abomination ("something odious or detestable").
Examples of abominable in a Sentence
Samuel McDowell, Kansas City Star, 28 July 2025
Mamdani's stance on Israel is in fact abominable, but Cuomo missed how much more important to the broader primary electorate pocketbook issues were.
—Tom Rogers, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 July 2025
Commentators lined up to administer their licks, with a surprising number of them pummelling the idea of lunch itself, as though the meal were some kind of abominable kink.
—Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 21 July 2025
The victory snapped a five-game skid but more importantly put an end to an abominable 11-game Royals home losing streak all in the month of June.
—Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 28 June 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Abominable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abominable. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.
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abominable
adjective
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