Why “opprobry” is a great word
Public disgrace and infamy resulting from severe censure, a state where scorn is cast directly upon one's character. From Middle English opprobry, from Latin opprobrium ("disgrace, reproach, infamy"), from ob- ("toward, against") and probum ("good character, probity"). Unlike renown, which is fame's bright halo, or mere criticism, which can be a private, dispassionate judgment, opprobry is the public pillory, a sustained and scornful condemnation that stains the soul. It is the scornful silence of a crowded room when one enters, the indelible ink of a scandal that bleeds through every biography, and the collective, damning whisper that follows a name long after the deed is done—the brutal machinery by which a society expels a member from its good graces.