Ignominious

Ignominious – not a word that is really part of our daily vocabulary, but sometimes certain political or global events force a word into the spotlight of the global media.  This is one such case, as I am writing this approximately two weeks after the ignominious resignation of the shortest ruling British prime minister, Ms Liz Truss.  She resigned or as we might say “threw in the towel” on the 20^th of October 2022, after only 45 days in office.  The previous record, if we want to call it that, had been held by Mr Andrew Bonar Law (1922-23) who had lasted 211 days in office.  I have the feeling that this new ignominious record set by Ms Truss will stay on the record books for some time into the future.  So, what exactly does ignominious mean?  It is an adjective (giving more information about a noun/subject) and it refers to the fact that something, maybe an event or similar is making you feel embarrassed or ashamed and is derived from the Latin, ignōminiōsus (“disgraceful”).  We frequently see ignominious partnered with the word “defeat” for example – “He suffered an ignominious defeat in the election.”  This person not only lost the election, but he lost it by a huge margin, so much so, that it could end his political career.  Ignominious is not limited to the political scene, it can be used in the business world “He made one mistake, and his career came to an ignominious end” and other life situations, such as “Bill Cosby had been a popular entertainer, but when his history of sexual assaults was made public, it all came to an ignominious end”. Ignominious is formal and implies something serious has happened, a common synonym is the word “humiliating” which might be used for less serious and less formal situations.  So, what of Ms Liz Truss? At the time of writing this, she had been demoted to the parliamentary backbenchers.  Her long-term position in politics is uncertain, but with such an ignominious record, she is probably bound for political obscurity.

Photo attribution: Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street, OGL 3, via Wikimedia Commons.  Depicted person: Liz Truss and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from September to October 2022.  This picture was taken on 29^th of March 2022 (according to Exif data)