English
ignominious
Ignominious comes from Middle English ignominious ‘disgraceful, shameful’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ignominious‘disgraceful, shameful’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591ignominious
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ignominious‘disgraceful, shameful’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591ignominious
Earliest quotation: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “Hath he not tvvit our Soueraigne Lady here /…”
Equivalent to ignominy + -ious
Hittite Hittite form ‘to sue, judge’
…
Proto-Italic *nōmn̥ ‘name’
Latin nomen ‘name’
Latin ignōminia ‘dishonour, disgrace, degradation, ignominy,…’
French ignominie
English ignominy
The story
From Late Middle English ignominious (‘disgraceful, shameful’), from Middle French ignominieux (modern French ignominieux), or from its etymon Latin ignōminiōsus (‘disgraced; disgraceful, shameful, ignominious’), from ignōminia (‘disgrace, dishonour, shame, ignominy’) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; overly; prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). Ignōminia is derived from ig- (variant of in- (prefix meaning not) + nōmen (‘name; good name, reputation’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (‘name’)) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ ‘name’
name, anonymity, pseudonym, 32 more
through Latin nōmen
nomination, allocate, noun, nominate, nominal, renown, misnomer, nominative, nomen, 20 more
Today it means
adj Especially of a person: deserving of disgrace or dishonour; contemptible, despicable.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English ignominious / ignominious