Abomination


anything ; anything greatly disliked or abhorred.
intense aversion or loathing; detestation:
He regarded lying with abomination.
a vile, shameful, or detestable action, condition, habit, etc.:
Spitting in public is an abomination.
Contemporary Examples

He cleared the temple of its abomination and rededicated it to the one god of Abraham.
How Jews Invented Heaven Lisa Miller March 27, 2010

American sanctions on Russia, he said, were an “abomination of hypocrisy.”
Meet The Putin-Loving Congressman Who’s Worried About Fluoride In Our Drinking Water James Kirchick July 19, 2014

Everyone who loves India should mourn this abomination called Telangana.
India’s Newest State Telangana Is Bosnia Redux Kranti Rai March 21, 2014

Well, maybe you could apologize to all of us for that abomination of an ESPN program where you announced “The Decision.”
Stop Picking on LeBron Allen Barra October 27, 2010

Their sins are unforgivable, and their disregard of the children is an abomination.
Penn State and Catholic Church Child Sex-Abuse Trials Divide Penn. Public Marci A. Hamilton May 26, 2012

Historical Examples

To play second fiddle to a young woman is an abomination to us all.
Evan Harrington, Complete George Meredith

That would be frightful, he could not suffer such an abomination.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete Emile Zola

This Minister Bach is the abomination, primarily of the Austrian lords, but also of all landowners whatever their rank.
Memoirs of the Duchesse De Dino Duchesse De Dino

The cultivation of the silk-worm is in itself an abomination.
The Book of Khalid Ameen Rihani

It was not he who declared the sects to be all wrong, their creeds an abomination, and the professors thereof corrupt.
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Joseph Smith

noun
a person or thing that is disgusting
an action that is vicious, vile, etc
intense loathing
n.

early 14c., “abominable thing or action;” late 14c., “feeling of disgust, hatred, loathing,” from Old French abominacion “abomination, horror, repugnance, disgust” (13c.), from Latin abominationem (nominative abominatio) “abomination,” noun of action from past participle stem of abominari “shun as an ill omen,” from ab- “off, away from” (see ab-) + omin-, stem of omen (see omen). Meaning intensified by folk etymology derivation from Latin ab homine “away from man,” thus “beastly.”

Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front and a polygonal back were allowed to exist and to propagate a still more Irregular posterity, what would become of the arts of life? Are the houses and doors and churches in Flatland to be altered in order to accommodate such monsters? [Edwin Abbot, “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions,” 1885]

This word is used, (1.) To express the idea that the Egyptians considered themselves as defiled when they ate with strangers (Gen. 43:32). The Jews subsequently followed the same practice, holding it unlawful to eat or drink with foreigners (John 18:28; Acts 10:28; 11:3). (2.) Every shepherd was “an abomination” unto the Egyptians (Gen. 46:34). This aversion to shepherds, such as the Hebrews, arose probably from the fact that Lower and Middle Egypt had formerly been held in oppressive subjection by a tribe of nomad shepherds (the Hyksos), who had only recently been expelled, and partly also perhaps from this other fact that the Egyptians detested the lawless habits of these wandering shepherds. (3.) Pharaoh was so moved by the fourth plague, that while he refused the demand of Moses, he offered a compromise, granting to the Israelites permission to hold their festival and offer their sacrifices in Egypt. This permission could not be accepted, because Moses said they would have to sacrifice “the abomination of the Egyptians” (Ex. 8:26); i.e., the cow or ox, which all the Egyptians held as sacred, and which they regarded it as sacrilegious to kill. (4.) Daniel (11:31), in that section of his prophecies which is generally interpreted as referring to the fearful calamities that were to fall on the Jews in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, says, “And they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.” Antiochus Epiphanes caused an altar to be erected on the altar of burnt-offering, on which sacrifices were offered to Jupiter Olympus. (Comp. 1 Macc. 1:57). This was the abomination of the desolation of Jerusalem. The same language is employed in Dan. 9:27 (comp. Matt. 24:15), where the reference is probably to the image-crowned standards which the Romans set up at the east gate of the temple (A.D. 70), and to which they paid idolatrous honours. “Almost the entire religion of the Roman camp consisted in worshipping the ensign, swearing by the ensign, and in preferring the ensign before all other gods.” These ensigns were an “abomination” to the Jews, the “abomination of desolation.” This word is also used symbolically of sin in general (Isa. 66:3); an idol (44:19); the ceremonies of the apostate Church of Rome (Rev. 17:4); a detestable act (Ezek. 22:11).

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