Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Stigma
/ˈstɪɡmə/noun
A mark of disgrace attached to a person, a group or a condition.
The Greek roots
στίγμα
stígma
brand, tattoo mark
Literally: “a mark made by pricking”
Follow a root:στίγμα2 words
The story of the word
A stígma was a real mark, pricked into skin with needle and ink to identify a slave or a convicted criminal. English borrowed the literal sense in the 1590s and had the figurative one within twenty years. Botanists later gave the name to the sticky tip of a flower's pistil, and Christian writers gave the plural, stigmata, to the wounds of Francis of Assisi. Erving Goffman's book of 1963 fixed the social meaning that now crowds out the rest.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1590s
Same family
stigmatastigmatizeastigmatism
In a sentence
The stigma around asking for help is what keeps most of them silent.