Abominable means causing disgust and hatred. An abominable crime, abominable behaviour, the Abominable Snowman.
It is very strong and rather formal, which is why using it of the weather or a meal is comic. The Abominable Snowman is a translation of a Tibetan phrase and is how the yeti entered English in 1921. Note abomination; and that the Latin means to shun as an ill omen, from omen — so an abominable thing is a bad sign.
1adjectiveabominableCausing disgust and hatred.
“The prisoners were kept in abominable conditions, without light or clean water.”
synonyms: loathsome, detestable
abominable is a quality of disgust.
Latin abominabilis comes from abominari, to shun as an ill omen — ab plus omen. Medieval writers wrongly connected it to homo, which is why it was long spelt abhominable.
Middle English
abhomynable
English, today
abominable
Built from
From Middle English abhomynable. From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Latin abōminābilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from abōminor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ōminor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ōmen (“sign, token, omen”). Formerly erroneously folk-etymologized as deriving from ab- + homo, literally "away from humankind," and therefore spelled abhominable, abhominal (Hence, Shakespeare puns on this when Hamlet speaks of incompetent actors that "imitate humanity abominably.")
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA