odious \OH-dee-us\ adjective: arousing or deserving hatred or repugnance : hatefulExample sentence: Pinky Diablo, although handsome and debonair, was an odious person: cruel, violent, and deceitful, willing to do anything to anyone to gain the wealth and power he craved.
Did you know? "Odious" has been with us since the days of Middle English. We borrowed it from Anglo-French, which in turn had taken it from Latin "odiosus." The Latin adjective came from the noun "odium," meaning "hatred." "Odium" is also an ancestor of the English verb "annoy" (another word that came to Middle English via Anglo-French). And, at the beginning of the 17th century, "odium" entered English in its unaltered form, giving us a noun meaning "hatred" or "disgrace" (as in "ideas that have incurred much odium").
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
