Etymology: Early Middle English scandle , scha(u)ndle , < Old Northern French escandle, Central Old French eschandle , semi-popular < ecclesiastical Latin scandalum cause of offence or stumbling, < Greek σκάνδαλον , recorded only in Hellenistic literature, in the figurative sense ‘snare for an enemy, cause of moral stumbling’, but certainly an old word meaning ‘trap’ (compare the derivative σκανδάληθρον spring of a trap), believed to be < the Indogermanic *skand- to spring, leap: compare Latin scandĕre to climb, to scan v.Before the 16th cent. the word occurs only in the Ancren Riwle, except in the forms treated s.v. slander n. (from the Old French variants escandre, esclandre). In the 16th cent. it was re-adopted from the Latin in the form scandal, possibly after the French learned form scandale, which had been introduced to represent the strict sense of ecclesiastical Latin scandalum, as distinguished from the senses that had been developed by French esclandre. Compare Spanish escándalo, Portuguese escandalo, Italian scandalo, German skandal (which has developed the sense ‘uproar’), Dutch schandaal.

Etymology: < scandal n.