scandal

1 disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people [syn: dirt, malicious gossip]

2 a disgraceful event [syn: outrage]

English

Etymology

From Old Northern French escandle, from ecclesiastical Latin scandalum, from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον.

Pronunciation

• /ˈskændəl/

  Rhymes: -ændəl

Noun

1. Religious discredit; an act or behaviour which brings a religion into discredit.
2. Something which hinders acceptance of religious ideas or behaviour; a stumbling-block or offense.
3. Damage to personal reputation.

   The incident brought considerable scandal to his family.

4. An incident or event that brings disgrace, or damages the reputation of the persons or organization involved.

   Their affair was reported as a scandal by most tabloids.

5. Moral outrage; offence to decency.

   When their behaviour was made public it caused a great scandal.

6. Defamatory talk; gossip.

   According to village scandal, they weren't even married.

Translations

Derived terms

• scandalize
• scandalmonger
• scandal of particularity
• scandalous
• scandal sheet

A scandal is a widely publicized incident that involves allegations of wrongdoing, disgrace, or moral outrage. A scandal may be based on reality, the product of false allegations, or a mixture of both.

Some scandals are broken by whistleblowers who reveal wrongdoing within organizations or groups, most notably Deep Throat (William Mark Felt) during the 1970s Watergate scandal that involved President Richard Nixon. Falsely alleged scandals can lead to witch-hunts against the innocent. Sometimes an attempt to cover up a scandal ignites a greater scandal when the cover-up fails. Classes of scandals include:

• Political scandals
• Sex scandals
• Academic scandals
• Sporting scandals (especially Olympic Games scandals)

Western world

The United States in the 1950s was swept by a wave of game show scandals. Another major type of scandal is a corporate, especially those that involve accounting. A wave of such scandals swept American companies in 2002. Nineteenth-century Western society's Seven Social Scandals were fraud, bankruptcy, unwed pregnancy, adultery, homosexuality, divorce, and illegitimacy. In the United States, scandals are often referred to with a -gate suffix, particularly political ones.

List of scandals

• Corporate scandals
• Journalistic scandals
• Roman Catholic sexual abuse cases
• List of Christian evangelist scandals
• List of scandals with "-gate" suffix

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