egregious

UK/ɪˈɡɹiː.d͡ʒəs/US/ɪˈɡɹiː.d͡ʒəs/

adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,688 of 15,258neutral

Egregious means outstandingly bad. An egregious error, egregious misconduct, the most egregious case.

The word reversed itself: the Latin means standing out from the flock, and it once meant remarkably good. It went ironic and stayed there, which is why egregious now only ever means bad.

Definitions of egregious

1adjectiveegregiousOutstandingly bad.C1
“The referee made an egregious mistake by allowing the goal.”

egregious is a degree.

Where it comes from

Latin egregius means standing out from the flock, from e-, out of, plus grex, a flock.

Proto-Indo-European
*h₂ger-
Latin
ēgregius
English, today
egregious

Built from

e- · Latin — out of
grex · Latin — flock
-osus · Latin — full of

Borrowed from Latin ēgregius. From Latin ēgregius, from e- (“out of”), + grex (“flock”), + English adjective suffix -ous, from Latin suffix -osus (“full of”); reflecting the positive connotations of "standing out from the flock".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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