Middle English via French from Latin abominabilis from abominari, literally ‘to deprecate as an ill-omen’, from ab- + omin-, omen omen¹. It is a very old etymological misconception that this word derives from Latin ab homine (literally ‘from the man’, suggesting ‘inhuman, unnatural’). This notion produced the form abhominable in early French, which was borrowed into English in the 14th cent. and was the normal spelling until the 17th cent