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odium

[oh-dee-uh m]
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noun
  1. intense hatred or dislike, especially toward a person or thing regarded as contemptible, despicable, or repugnant.
  2. the reproach, discredit, or opprobrium attaching to something hated or repugnant: He had to bear the odium of neglecting his family.
  3. the state or quality of being hated.
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Origin of odium

1595–1605; < Latin: hatred, equivalent to od(isse) to hate + -ium -ium

Synonyms

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1. detestation, abhorrence, antipathy. 2. obloquy.

Antonyms

1. love.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for odium

Historical Examples

  • The odium which attached to him when alive has not been removed by his death.

    Philebus

    Plato

  • And the odium for all this fell especially on President Wilson.

    Woodrow Wilson's Administration and Achievements

    Frank B. Lord and James William Bryan

  • I would like to say that I have no fear of the odium of the designation of iconoclast.

  • The appropriation of the money did not lessen the odium of the tax.

  • Another cause of odium had been Manourie's tale of his habit of reviling the King.

    Sir Walter Ralegh

    William Stebbing

British Dictionary definitions for odium

odium

noun
  1. the dislike accorded to a hated person or thing
  2. hatred; repugnance
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Word Origin

C17: from Latin; related to ōdī I hate, Greek odussasthai to be angry
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for odium

n.

c.1600, "fact of being hated," from Latin odium "ill-will, hatred, grudge, animosity; offense, offensive conduct," related to odi "I hate" (infinitive odisse), from PIE root *od- "to hate" (cf. Armenian ateam "I hate," Old Norse atall, Old English atol "dire, horrid, loathsome"). Meaning "hatred, detestation" is from 1650s. Often in an extended form, e.g. odium theologicum "hatred which is proverbially characteristic of theological disputes" (1670s).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper