heinous
English
WOTD – 16 January 2010
Alternative forms
- hainous (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English hainous, from Old French haïneus (compare French haineux) from haïr (“to hate”), hadir (“to hate”) (compare Old French enhadir (“to become filled with hate”)), from Frankish *hattjan (“to 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.[1][2][3]
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈheɪnəs/
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈhiːnəs/
Audio (UK): (file) Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪnəs
Adjective
heinous (comparative more heinous, superlative most heinous)
- Totally reprehensible.
- I hope they catch the person responsible for that heinous crime.
- The perpetrators of this heinous act must be brought to justice.
- 2021 October 12, Jamie Lyall, “Faroe Islands 0-1 Scotland”, in BBC Sport[4]:
- Perhaps burdened by the weight of history, talk of the heinous 2-2 draw in 2002, or the magnitude of the fixture, Scotland seemed spooked in the early throes.
- Bad, evil or villainous.
Synonyms
- (totally reprehensible): abominable, horrible, odious
Antonyms
- unheinous (rare)
Derived terms
Related terms
Collocations
with nouns
- heinous crime
- heinous act
- heinous sin
- heinous murder
- heinous offence
Translations
totally reprehensible
References
- ^ Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700[1], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 131 (b), page 650.
- ^ Jordan, Richard (1974), Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)[2], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., , § 233, page 213.
- ^ Luick, Karl (1929-1940), Herbert Wild, Friedrich Koziol, editors, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache[3], Erster Band, II. Abteilung, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1940, →OCLC, § 516, page 634.