Other forms: scandals
A scandal is wrongdoing that becomes public and damages reputations. Money that went missing, a minister and the contract he handed to a friend, photographs somebody hoped would stay private.
Scandal covers both the event and the noise around it — the scandal broke on a Sunday, and the scandal ran for months. Newspapers bolt it onto a word to name a case: a doping scandal, an expenses scandal, with the -gate ending doing the same job. You can also call something a scandal when you mean it is outrageous: it is a scandal that the pool has been shut for two years. The adjective is scandalous, the verb scandalize means to shock, and scandal-mongering is the trade of spreading damaging gossip.
1nounscandalA shocking act or event that becomes public and damages reputations.
“The scandal forced two ministers to resign.”
synonyms: affair, controversy
2nountalkTalk that damages someone's reputation; malicious gossip.
“She had no appetite for local scandal.”
3nounoutrageousSomething outrageous or shameful.
“It is a scandal that the hospital has waited three years for the equipment.”
scandal is a public disgrace.
Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον was a trap laid for an enemy, the thing you trip over. Church Latin took it as scandalum, a stumbling block — whatever makes a person fall into sin — and Middle French passed on scandale, the outrage caused by bad behaviour. English slander is the same word arriving by a different road.
Proto-Indo-European
*skand- — to jump
Ancient Greek
σκάνδαλον — a trap laid for an enemy, a cause of moral stumbling
Ecclesiastical Latin
scandalum — that on which one trips, cause of offense
Middle French
scandale — indignation caused by misconduct or defamatory speech
English, today
scandal
From Middle French scandale (“indignation caused by misconduct or defamatory speech”), from Ecclesiastical Latin scandalum (“that on which one trips, cause of offense”) literally “stumbling block”, from Ancient Greek σκάνδαλον (“a trap laid for an enemy, a cause of moral stumbling”), from Proto-Indo-European skand- (“to jump”). Cognate with Latin scandō (“to climb”). First attested from fro-nor escandle, but the modern word is a reborrowing. Doublet, via Old French esclandre, of a doublet of slander. Sense evolution from "cause of stumbling, that which causes one to sin, stumbling block" to "discredit to reputation, that which brings shame, thing of disgrace" is possibly due to early influence from other similar sounding words for infamy and disgrace (compare Old English scand (“ignominity, scandal, disgraceful thing”), Old High German scanda (“ignominy, disgrace”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰 (“shame, disgrace”)). See shand, shend, shonda.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA