Opprobrium Meaning and Usage

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noun

- The disgrace or infamy brought on by association with a very shameful or reproachful act or event; ignominy
- Scornful reproach or contempt; contempt for something regarded as inferior
- Disgrace; infamy; reproach mingled with contempt; abusive language.


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Derivatives:

Opprobrious - adjective
Opprobriously – adverb

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Use opprobrium in a sentence:

1. He defended himself against the slander and opprobrium hurled on him.

2. The athlete's admission of using steroids earned her much opprobrium from former fans.

3. Their families also needed to be shielded from public opprobrium.

4. Politicians need a stronger peer-review system that goes beyond the churlish opprobrium of the campaign trail, and I would love to see a political debate in which the candidates were required to make the opposite case

5. "They say three’s a crowd," laughed Keating. "But that’s bosh. Two are better than one, and sometimes three are better than two, it all depends."
"The only thing wrong with that old cliché," said Toohey, "is the erroneous implication that ’a crowd’ is a term of opprobrium. It is quite the opposite.

6. Opprobrium greeted the regime of Benito Mussolini for its invasion of what is now Ethiopia in the 1930s.

7. Any person or country that infringes on the civil rights of any person or group is deserving of opprobrium.

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Synonyms:
blemish, calumny, censure, contumely, debasement, debasing, degradation, discredit, disfavour, disgrace, dishonour, disrepute, disrespect, humiliation, ignominy, infamy, obloquy, odium, reproach, scurrility, shame, slur, stain, stigma, tarnish.

Antonyms:
Honor, praise, approval, glory, fame

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Origin:
"Opprobrium" was borrowed into English from Latin in the 17th century. It came from the Latin verb "opprobrare," which means "to reproach." That verb in turn came from the noun "probrum," meaning "disgraceful act" or "reproach." These gave us "opprobrium" as well as its adjective form "opprobrious," which means "scurrilous" or "infamous." One might commit an "opprobrious crime" or be berated with "opprobrious language." "Probrum" gave English another word too, but you might have a little trouble guessing it. It's "exprobrate," an archaic synonym of "censure" or "upbraid."

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Some more examples:

1. After his torrid extramarital affair became public, the Governor resigned in Opprobrium.

2. The antithesis - batting first and getting rolled over - rarely seems to attract similar opprobrium.

3. "Typically academic," they disdainfully observed about many university press books--"too dry, too specialized, too self-absorbed for us." In their world, the word "academic" was as much a term of opprobrium as the word "middlebrow" was in mine.

4. Five months after the country incurred global opprobrium by closing off its currency and capital markets, its officials are in no mood to apologize.

5. Then again, if you enjoy my lavishing you with opprobrium, you’re more than welcome to come back here time and again to submit your spam for my careful consideration.

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