Word of the Day

: September 22, 2024

heinous

adjective HAY-nus

What It Means

Heinous describes things—such as acts, deeds, or crimes—that are hatefully or shockingly evil, or in other words, deserving of hate or contempt.

// The former dictator will stand trial for the role he played in his government’s heinous treatment of political dissidents.

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heinous in Context

“‘I didn’t say anything at the time,’ Fyodor said. ‘But I don’t agree with you. I think killing people is wrong. It is always wrong. Even if you do something really awful or heinous. Nobody should get to kill you.’” — Brandon Taylor, The Late Americans: A Novel, 2023

Did You Know?

For eons, humans have contrasted love with hate and good with evil, putting love and good on one side, and hate and evil on the other. The association of hate with evil is baked into the etymology of heinous, which English gained directly from Anglo-French in the 14th century with the meaning we still know today; its source is the Anglo-French noun haine, meaning “hate.” Haine in turn comes from a verb of Germanic origin, hair, also meaning “to hate.” (The similarity between this hair and the other hair is coincidental.) Chaucer’s poem “Troilus and Criseyde” provides an early example of heinous in English: “He rang them out a story like a bell, against her foe who was called Polyphete, so heinous that men might on it spit.”