Abomination

Kindly tell me about the word "abomination."

Abomination is a strong word. It comes from the Latin abominari, meaning "to shrink back from as an evil omen" or "to detest."

In modern English, it usually means one of three things:

1. Something regarded with intense disgust or hatred

   • "The corruption was an abomination to the reformers."

   • Here it means something morally repellent.

2. Something considered morally wrong or sinful

   • This is especially common in religious language.

   • Many English Bible translations use abomination to translate Hebrew words for things considered ritually impure, idolatrous, or morally forbidden.

3. Something shockingly bad or offensive

   • Often used humorously or hyperbolically.

   • "That instant coffee is an abomination."

   • Nobody means it is literally evil; they mean it is appallingly bad.

The word carries more moral weight than related terms:

Word	Strength
dislike	mild
objectionable	moderate
detestable	strong
abhorrent	very strong
abomination	among the strongest

One interesting feature is that abomination often says as much about the speaker as about the thing itself. Calling something an abomination usually implies not merely that it is bad, but that it violates a deeply held standard—religious, moral, aesthetic, or cultural.

Historically, this has led to some shifts in interpretation. In older religious texts, practices may be called "abominations" not because they are universally evil, but because they violated the ritual or cultural norms of a particular community. Modern readers sometimes assume the word always indicates absolute moral evil, which can oversimplify what the original text meant.

As for sound and style, abomination is one of those grand old English words that has never entirely lost its thunder. A politician may denounce a policy as an abomination; a food critic may call a recipe an abomination; and a grandmother may declare pineapple on pizza an abomination. The word works in both solemn and comic registers because it is so emphatic.

It also has a memorable literary rhythm: a-bom-i-NA-tion—five syllables with the stress falling near the end, which helps give it that rolling, condemnatory force.

I used it referring to shredded lettuce in a hamburger in a context of food safety (it was being recommended against bacteria).

Yes, it does. The word is overwhelmingly associated with the Old Testament, but the King James New Testament retains it in a handful of places. The most famous is Jesus' reference to "the abomination of desolation" in Matthew and Mark, echoing Daniel:

"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation..." (Matthew 24:15 KJV)

The KJV also uses abomination in:

• Matthew 24:15

• Mark 13:14

• Luke 16:15 ("that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God")

• Revelation 17:4–5

• Revelation 21:27

What's interesting is that the New Testament usage is somewhat narrower than in the Old Testament. In the OT, abomination is used for a vast range of things—idolatry, dishonest weights, certain foods, various sexual prohibitions, pride, lying, and so forth. In the NT it tends to appear in contexts of idolatry, profound spiritual corruption, or eschatological imagery.

Your instinct about the word's "wrathful God" flavor is quite perceptive. In modern English, abomination often carries a distinctly biblical resonance even for people who have never read much scripture. If someone says, "Shredded lettuce on hamburgers is an abomination," there is a faint comic echo of a prophet denouncing idols on a hilltop. The humor comes from applying a word of cosmic moral condemnation to a matter of lunch.

In fact, your usage is rather close to the KJV's broader idiom than many people realize. In Proverbs, for example, things like dishonest business practices are called "abominations"—not because they are monstrous in scale, but because they offend a principle of proper order. Calling shredded lettuce an abomination because it violates sound food-safety practice has a similar rhetorical structure, just with a wink attached.

And as a stylistic note, older readers often still hear the capital-A biblical sound behind the word, while younger readers may hear it more as colorful exaggeration. That's one reason it remains such a satisfying word to deploy.

The "abomination of desolation" has something to do with the Temple. ??

Yes. The phrase "abomination of desolation" is one of the most debated expressions in the Bible, but it is definitely tied to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Jesus refers to it in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14, but he is quoting the prophet Daniel. The original context in Daniel appears to point to events in the second century BC involving the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

In 167 BC, Antiochus seized Jerusalem, stopped the Temple sacrifices, and desecrated the Temple. Ancient sources describe him erecting a pagan altar—probably connected with Zeus—and offering forbidden sacrifices there. For Jews of the time, this was both an abomination (something detestable, especially idolatrous) and a cause of desolation (the Temple's proper worship ceased and the sanctuary was profaned).

The puzzle is that Jesus speaks of the "abomination of desolation" about two centuries later, as though it is still future. That has led to several interpretations:

1. Roman destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70)
   Many scholars think Jesus was referring to the Roman siege and destruction of the Temple. Roman standards carried religious significance, and the Temple was ultimately destroyed.

2. A future end-times event
   Many Christians, especially in some evangelical traditions, believe Jesus was pointing beyond AD 70 to a final desecration of a restored Temple.

3. Both
   Some interpreters see Antiochus as the original fulfillment, AD 70 as a second fulfillment, and a future event as a possible final fulfillment.

The phrase itself is wonderfully KJV-ish. In ordinary English:

• Abomination = something detestable, especially religiously offensive.

• Desolation = devastation, abandonment, ruin.

So the expression means something like "the detestable thing that causes the sanctuary to be laid waste."

As for your earlier use of abomination for shredded lettuce, there is a faintly biblical flavor to it because many English speakers first encounter the word in phrases such as "abomination of desolation." You were, in effect, elevating a food-safety complaint to the level of prophetic denunciation—which is part of what makes the usage amusing. A prophet condemns idolatry; you condemn pre-shredded lettuce. The rhetorical machinery is the same, even if the stakes are considerably lower.

Interesting. I may have missed it but I did not pick up JWs referring to that passage in their signs of the times (plagues, war, famine, earthquake, etc.).

You're remembering correctly that Jehovah's Witnesses have traditionally emphasized Jesus' list of "signs"—wars, food shortages, earthquakes, pestilences, and the worldwide preaching work—when discussing the "last days." The "abomination of desolation" is certainly in their interpretation of prophecy, but it tends not to be one of the headline items in the way those other signs are.

Historically, Witnesses have interpreted the passage in a way that parallels a common Christian reading:

• The first-century fulfillment involved the Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem.

• The "disgusting thing" (their New World Translation often uses disgusting thing rather than abomination) was associated with Rome and its military standards.

• Christians who recognized the sign fled Jerusalem before its destruction in AD 70.

Where Witness interpretation becomes distinctive is that they often see a larger modern fulfillment as well, involving political powers and future events affecting religion.

One reason you may not have heard much emphasis on it is that the passage is less straightforward and less immediately observable than wars or earthquakes. It's easier to point to a current famine or conflict than to explain a symbolic "abomination of desolation" whose fulfillment is debated even among biblical scholars.

As an aside, the New World Translation's choice of "disgusting thing" is interesting in light of our discussion of abomination. To modern ears, abomination sounds grand, archaic, and biblical. Disgusting thing is plainer and more literal-sounding, though it loses some of the thunder. A prophet crying, "Behold, the Abomination of Desolation!" has a certain resonance that "the disgusting thing that causes desolation" does not quite match.

Given your background, I suspect you may also be noticing something else: among many religious groups that focus heavily on end-times prophecy, there is often a tendency to foreground the signs that can be matched to newspaper headlines. The "abomination of desolation" is harder to fit into that pattern, so it tends to receive less attention in popular preaching than in detailed prophetic study.

And, of course, once you've spent time reading the King James Bible, abomination acquires a life of its own. It becomes available for all sorts of lesser evils—bad architecture, bad prose, overcooked vegetables, and, apparently, shredded lettuce on hamburgers. The King James translators probably did not foresee that particular application.