heinous
/ˈheɪnəs/ adjective
Forms hainous
- adjective Totally reprehensible. “I hope they catch the person responsible for that heinous crime.”
- adjective Bad, evil or villainous.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English heynous, from Anglo-Norman hainous, heinous (compare French haineux) from Old French haïr, hadir (“to hate”) (compare Old French en-hadir (“to become filled with hate”)), from Frankish *hattjan (“to hate”) (compare Middle English hetien). More at hate.
The fluctuation between pronunciations with /eɪ/ and /iː/ is old; the former reflects adoption of an unmonophthongised pronunciation of Old French -ai-, while the latter reflects a monophthongised form.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Hateful; hatefully bad; flagrant; odious; atrocious; giving great great offense; --applied to deeds or to character.
Etymology [OF. haïnos hateful, F. haineux, fr. OF. haïne hate, F. haine, fr. haïr to hate; of German origin. See Hate.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “heinous”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details