egregious
adjective

- extremely bad in a way that is very noticeable

Cambridge Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

The etymology of "egregious" reveals a fascinating semantic shift over time. It entered English in the 1530s from Latin egregius meaning "distinguished, excellent, extraordinary”. Its Latin origins come from the phrase ex grege meaning "rising above the flock”, where ex means "out of" and grege is the ablative form of grex meaning "a herd, flock."

The Latin root grex (meaning "flock", "herd", or "group") is also the source of the English word "gregarious", which originally meant "tending to live in a flock" before evolving to mean "sociable”. Essentially, something "egregious" literally meant "standing out from the herd".

What makes the word particularly interesting is its dramatic semantic shift. A negative meaning arose in the late 16th century, probably originated in ironic sarcasm.

This shift in meaning, technically called catachresis, is a curious linguistic phenomenon in which words sometimes come to mean their opposite. Shakespeare used "egregious" in this negative sense in Cymbeline: "Ay me, most credulous fool, egregious murderer, thief".

Today, the word predominantly carries this negative connotation, meaning "conspicuously bad or offensive."

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7 EGREGIOUS MISTAKES THAT MADE HEADLINES

1. Coca-Cola’s “New Coke” Product Launch (1985)
Coca-Cola reformulated its flagship beverage and released “New Coke.” Consumer backlash was swift and intense, prompting the company to reintroduce the original formula as “Coca-Cola Classic.”

2. NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter Loss (1999)
NASA lost the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter due to a failure to convert imperial units to metric. The discrepancy caused the spacecraft to enter the Martian atmosphere at the wrong altitude, leading to its destruction.

3. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2010)
A BP-operated offshore drilling rig suffered a blowout, leading to the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history. The incident caused severe environmental and economic harm and resulted in multi-billion-dollar fines.

4. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal (2018)
It was revealed that data from millions of Facebook users had been improperly accessed and used for political profiling. The incident prompted global debates about privacy and data protection.

5. Theranos Blood Testing Failures (2015–2018)
Theranos, a biotech startup, falsely claimed it could perform numerous medical tests using only a few drops of blood. Investigations revealed that the technology was unreliable, leading to criminal charges and the company’s closure.

6. ChatGPT Voice Assistant Paused After Scarlett Johansson Comparison (2024)
OpenAI temporarily withdrew a voice assistant after one voice was widely compared to actress Scarlett Johansson. The incident raised ethical questions about AI voice likeness and consent.

7. OpenAI–Sam Altman Firing and Reinstatement (2023)
OpenAI’s board unexpectedly dismissed CEO Sam Altman, sparking internal unrest and public backlash. Within five days, following pressure from employees and investors, he was reinstated—highlighting governance challenges in fast-moving tech firms.

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SYNONYMS



abhorrent, abominable, appalling, atrocious, awful, bare-faced, base, beastly, beneath contempt, beyond the pale, brazen, contemptuous, corrupt, criminal, deplorable, despicable, detestable, diabolic, disgraceful, dreadful, EGREGIOUS, evil, fiendish, grievous, heinous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrifying, ignominious, iniquitous, intolerable, loathsome, monstrous, obscene, odious, outrageous, perfidious, repellent, reprehensible, repugnant, repulsive, scandalous, scrofulous, shameful, shameless, shocking, terrible, unconscionable, unforgivable, unspeakable, vile, wicked

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation today, say something like:

“What begins as an EGREGIOUS mistake can sometimes lead to a breakthrough that no one expects.”

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