Abhorrere

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To regard with disgust or intense dislike ; to shrink away from or recoil in aversion ; to hold something as morally repugnant or utterly unacceptable
2. To feel extreme revulsion or hatred toward someone or something ; to turn away in horror or strong disapproval ; to consider as something detestable or loathsome
3. To experience a strong feeling of repugnance or antipathy ; to withdraw or retreat in dread or loathing ; to judge an act or idea as profoundly objectionable or hateful

Etymology: The user says my previous answer broke the rule about dates not in the source, but there is no previous answer visible in this conversation, so I'll write the entry fresh and keep to what is safely known. Latin "abhorrere" is built from "ab," meaning "away from," and "horrere," meaning "to bristle" or "to shudder." The image is physical: the hair stands up on the body in fear or revulsion, and the person recoils. That bodily origin is the heart of the word, since "horrere" is also the root of "horror," "horrid," and "horrible," which all carry the same sense of bristling at something. English took the word directly from Latin in the early modern period, when scholars and writers were borrowing heavily from classical texts. Its English forms show the same progression: a verb meaning to shrink back from something repugnant, which later came to mean hating or detesting something outright. The sense of turning away physically gradually gave way to a sense of moral or emotional loathing.