Scandal
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"It was not until the eighteenth century that Brantome's reputation, one of not very high order, was established. His writings are regarded, above all, as a collection of dubious anecdotes. From him the chroniclers of scandalous stories, the Tallemants des Réaux and the Bussy-Rabutins, are descended." --Catholic Encyclopedia |
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A scandal is a widely publicized incident involving allegations of wrong-doing, disgrace, or moral outrage. A scandal may be based on reality, or the product of false allegations, or a mixture of both.
Falsely alleged scandals can lead to a witch-hunt against the innocent. Sometimes an attempt to cover up a scandal ignites a greater scandal when the cover-up fails.
Etymology
From Middle French scandale (“indignation caused by misconduct or defamatory speech”), from Ecclesiastical Latin scandalum (“that on which one trips, cause of offense”, literally “stumbling block”), from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (skándalon, “a trap laid for an enemy, a cause of moral stumbling”), from Proto-Indo-European *skand- (“to jump”). Cognate with Latin scandō (“to climb”). First attested from Old Northern French escandle, but the modern word is a reborrowing. Sense evolution from "cause of stumbling, that which causes one to sin, stumbling block" to "discredit to reputation, that which brings shame, thing of disgrace" possibly due to early influence from other similar sounding words for infamy and disgrace (compare Old English scand (“ignominy, scandal, disgraceful thing”), Old High German scanda (“ignominy, disgrace”), Gothic (skanda, “shame, disgrace”)). See shend.
See also
List of scandals
- Political scandals
- Academic scandals
- Sporting scandals
- Game show scandals
- Corporate scandals
- Journalistic scandals
- Olympic Games scandals
- Roman Catholic sex abuse cases
- List of Christian evangelist scandals
- List of scandals with "-gate" suffix
- Sex scandals