Skandalon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A trap or stumbling block set to ensnare someone or cause them to fall into sin or error
2. An obstacle or source of temptation that leads one into wrongdoing or moral failure
3. A cause of offense or scandal that leads to disruption in moral or spiritual conduct

Etymology: The Greek "skandalon" originally meant the trigger stick of a trap, the bent piece that snapped a snare shut when an animal touched bait. From that physical sense it came to mean a stumbling block, something placed in the path that trips a traveller. The New Testament writers adopted it in this figurative way, so that a "skandalon" became anything that causes someone to fall into sin or unbelief, and the Greek phrase "skandalon" in Paul's letters is often rendered as "stumbling block." English took the word through Latin "scandalum" and Old French "escandle," so "scandal" carried the moral sense of causing offence and disgrace, which is why the modern word has come to mean a public disgrace rather than a trap. The trap-trigger origin survives in the wider Greek and Latin family, and the older sense of obstruction still shows in the idea of a snare or pitfall in the path of virtue.