2a: public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious
Collaborators with the enemy did not escape the opprobrium of the townspeople.
b: contempt, reproachThe bombing of the church was met with widespread opprobrium.
Opprobrium was borrowed into English from Latin in the 17th century. It came from the Latin verb opprobrare, which means "to reproach." That verb in turn came from the noun probrum, meaning "disgraceful act or "reproach." These gave us "opprobrium" as well as its adjective form "opprobrious," which means "scurrilous" or "infamous." One might commit an "opprobrious crime" or be berated with "opprobrious language." "Probrum" gave English another word too, but you might have a little trouble guessing it. It's "exprobrate," an archaic synonym of "censure" or "upbraid."
Examples of opprobrium in a Sentence
They're going ahead with the plan despite public opprobrium.
saw no reason why “secretary” should suddenly become a term of opprobrium among the politically correct
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'opprobrium.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
borrowed from Latin, derivative (with -ium, deverbal suffix of function or state), of opprobrāre "to bring up as a reproach," from ob-ob- + -probrāre, verbal derivative of probrum "reproach, insult, disgrace," probably noun derivative of *pro-fro- "brought up against someone (as a reproach)," going back to Indo-European *pro-bhr-o, from *pro- "before" + *bhr-, ablaut grade of *bher- "carry, bring" — more at for entry 1, bear entry 2