stigma
noun
[ ˈstɪɡmə ]
• a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.
• "the stigma of having gone to prison will always be with me"
Similar:
shame,
disgrace,
dishonour,
stain,
taint,
blot,
blot on one's escutcheon,
blemish,
brand,
mark,
slur,
smirch,
• (in Christian tradition) marks corresponding to those left on Christ's body by the Crucifixion, said to have been impressed by divine favour on the bodies of St Francis of Assisi and others.
• a visible sign or characteristic of a disease.
• "knee deformities or other stigmata of childhood rickets"
• (in a flower) the part of a pistil that receives the pollen during pollination.
Origin:
late 16th century (denoting a mark made by pricking or branding): via Latin from Greek stigma ‘a mark made by a pointed instrument, a dot’; related to stick1.
