Where does “slanderous” come from?

Slanderous derives from Old French esclandre, from Latin scandalum meaning a stumbling block or cause of offense, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European skand-.

slanderous (English): Both untrue and harmful to a reputation

Definitions

Both untrue and harmful to a reputation

Ancestry of “slanderous”, step by step

Step	Language	Word	Meaning
1	English	-ous	Used to form adjectives from nouns, to denote...
2	Middle English	-ous	—
3	Old French	-us	-ous, used for forming adjectives
4	Latin	-ōsus	ose, -ous, -ful (full of or overly prone to)
5	Old Latin	-ōssus	—

Words derived from “slanderous”

slanderously
slanderousness
unslanderous

Every word from Old Latin -ōssus →Every word from Latin -ōsus →Every word from English -ous →