Ah, Hearsay, And Slander: The Etymology Of Scandal

Gossip, Hearsay, and Slander:
The Etymology of “Scandal”
Dictionary.com, a commonly used reference website, defines scandal as the following: something that is considered shocking or disgraceful. This means that every person, alive and dead, has been faced with a scandal of some sort. When thinking of the word scandal, one might wonder about any other meanings or synonyms of the word. That person may also consider what the etymology of the word entails about that culture as well as how suffixes change the meaning of the word.
To begin with, there are many ways to define the word scandal. Dictionary.com also defined scandal as “an offense caused by a fault or misdeed,” “to disgrace,” and “defamatory talk; malicious gossip.” Commonly, when someone says there was a scandal, he or she is referring to a crime committed by a company or some random love affair that was had by someone in the public eye. However, Thesaurus.com declares that a scandal can merely be called and embarrassment, gossip, detraction, dishonor, or a criticism. This shows that the American culture has developed into one of
Later, the word scandalum, meaning, “cause for offense, stumbling block, temptation,” was developed in Latin. Here is where one might notice the slight change in definitions. As people grew overtime to better understand religion of all sorts, they began to need a word that would allow them to point out a specific transgression of individuals. The common American meaning of scandal comes from the middle French word, scandale. This word was developed in the fifteenth century as the French began to use the vernacular in religion rather than the commonly accepted