Execrable

a. Also 5 excecrable, 6 Sc. execrabill, 7 exsecrable. [ad. L. execrābil-is (exsecrābil-is), (a) execrating, cf. sense 1; (b) accursed, detestable, f. execr-ārī (exsecr-ārī): see EXECRATE. Cf. Fr. exécrable.]

  † 1.  Expressing or involving a curse; hence, of an imprecation: Awful, fearful. Obs.

1382.  Wyclif, 2 Pet. ii. 11. Aungels … beren not aȝens hem the execrable … doom.

1580.  Baret, Alv., C 1802. A Cursing and oth execrable.

1622.  Fletcher, Sea Voy., II. ii. Did we then … here plant ourselves, With execrable oaths never to look On man?

c. 1630.  in Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 108 (1810), 110. A fearful and execrable curse on all such as shal deminish … it.

  2.  Of persons and things: Deserving to be execrated or cursed; abominable, detestable.

1490.  Caxton, Eneydos, iv. (1890), 19. Full of so excecrable cruelte.

1513.  More, Rich. III., Wks. 36/2. The execrable desire of souerayntee, prouoked him to theire destruccion.

c. 1590.  Marlowe, Faust, Wks. (Rtldg.), 95/2. Thou execrable dog.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XII. 64. O execrable Son so to aspire Above his brethren.

1703.  Maundrell, Journ. Jerus., 67. It was … shut out of the Walls of the City, as an execrable and polluted place.

1736.  Berkeley, Disc. Magistrates, Wks. III. 427. That execrable Fraternity of Blasphemers, lately set up within this city of Dublin.

1872.  Morley, Voltaire (1886), 168–9. He is either a lover of parasites … or else the most execrable cynic.

1878.  Tennyson, Q. Mary, II. ii. A knot of ruffians … With execrating execrable eyes.

  † b.  That is put under a curse; accursed. Obs.

1557.  N. T. (Genev.), 1 Cor. xii. 3. No man speaking in the Spirite of God, calleth Iesus execrable.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xvii. (1611), 209. Reserue, as … Saul did, execrable things, to worship God withall.

  † c.  Calling forth expressions of horror; piteous, horrifying, shocking. Obs.

1490.  Caxton, Eneydos, vi. (1890), 22. Y^e aduentures of fortune harde & dyuersly excecrable.

1596.  Drayton, Legends, iii. 529. Whereby brake out that execrable Rage.

1610.  G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict. (1632), 36. The heav’n put out his guilty eye, That durst behold so execrable sight.

1613.  R. Hill, Commun. Instruct., 20. His [the Minister’s] breaking of bread … [doth signifie] the execrable passion of Christ.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, On Dk. Ormond’s Recov., Wks. (1730), I. 49. Bellona me invites To seas of blood, and execrable sights.

1805.  Foster, Ess., I. iii. 33. The execrable image of this scene.

  3.  hyperbolically. Calling forth expressions of extreme disgust; of wretched quality, bad beyond description. [So mod.Fr. exécrable.]

1738.  Warburton, Div. Legat., I. 79. His execrable paradox.

1753.  Armstrong, Taste, 15. Blindly we … good, and bad, and execrable swallow.

1789.  Ld. Auckland, Corr., II. 191. Our mule-drivers were wicked enough to carry us to an execrable posada.

1815.  Moore, Lalla R. (1824), 127. The versification … was, to say no worse of it, execrable.

1867.  Miss Braddon, Run to Earth, iii. What execrable weather.

  Hence Execrableness.

1730–6.  Bailey (folio), Execrableness, accursedness, impiousness.

1775.  in Ash.