means The crime or act of speaking false statements that damage someone's reputation, as opposed to libel, which is the written form.

from From Old French 'esclandre,' which came from Latin 'scandalum' — a stumbling block, a trap, a cause of offense. That same Latin root, borrowed from Greek 'skandalon,' also gives us 'scandal,' so slander and scandal are siblings: one the spoken snare, the other the public uproar that follows.