Definitions
disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people
Word origin
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" is possibly due to early influence from other similar sounding words for infamy and disgrace (compare Old English scand (“ignominity, scandal, disgraceful thing”), Old High German scanda (“ignominy, disgrace”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰 (skanda, “shame, disgrace”)). See shand, shend, shonda.
Used in a sentence
“Their affair was reported as a scandal by most tabloids.”
“O, what a scandal is it to our crown, That two such noble peers as ye should jar!”
“It would not be fair to record the adventures of Father Brown, without admitting that he was once involved in a grave scandal.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Public disgrace”7 letters
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