vituperate

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. verb spread negative information about

Etymology

PIE word *dwóh₁ Learned borrowing from Latin vituperātus (“censured; disparaged”), perfect passive participle of vituperō (“to blame, scold, tell off; to censure; to disparage, find fault with”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from vitium (“blemish, defect, flaw, imperfection; crime, misdeed, wrongdoing; fault, error, sin; vice; disease (of plants)”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(d)wi-tyo- (“apart; wrong”), from *dwóh₁ (“two”)) + parō (“to acquire, get, obtain, procure; to arrange, order; to contrive, design; to furnish, provide; to produce; to decide, resolve”) (from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to get, procure; to produce; to bring forward; to bring forth, carry forth; to go through”)).

In classic literature

Synonyms

vilify, revile, rail

A single word — an entire dictionary opens.

Type a word, a sentence, a book title, or a link to an English article. WordNet and the Classics answer.

Try

A library of classics · a vault of words · instant etymology & meaning

Continue reading

Nice save! Solidify it with review →