A scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages (or tries to damage) the reputation of an institution, individual or creed. A scandal may be based on true or false allegations or a mixture of both.
From the Greek σκάνδαλον (skandalon), a trap or stumbling-block, the metaphor is that wrong conduct can impede or "trip" people's trust or faith.
Some scandals are broken by whistleblowers who reveal wrongdoing within organizations or groups, such as Deep Throat (William Mark Felt) during the 1970s Watergate scandal. Sometimes an attempt to cover up a possible scandal ignites a greater scandal when the cover-up fails.
Read more about Scandal: Western World, Old Bibles, List of Scandals
Famous quotes containing the word scandal:
“We must cultivate our garden.
Furia to God one day in seven allots;
The other six to scandal she devotes.
Satan, by false devotion never flammed,
Bets six to one, that Furia will be damned.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Gossip isn’t scandal and it’s not merely malicious. It’s chatter about the human race by lovers of the same. Gossip is the tool of the poet, the shop-talk of the scientist, and the consolation of the housewife, wit, tycoon and intellectual. It begins in the nursery and ends when speech is past.”
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)
“There is no scandal like rags, nor any crime so shameful as poverty.”
—George Farquhar (1678–1707)