denigrate
pronunciation
How to pronounce denigrate in British English:
UK [ˈdenɪgreɪt]
How to pronounce denigrate in American English:
US [ˈdɛnɪˌɡret]
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- Verb:
- belittle
- charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone
Word Origin
- denigrate
- denigrate: [16] To denigrate people is literally to ‘blacken’ them. The word comes from Latin dēnigrāre ‘blacken’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē- and niger ‘black’. This adjective, which is of unknown origin, also produced French noir ‘black’ and Italian nero ‘black’, and is the source (via Spanish negro) of English negro [16] and the now taboo nigger [18]. Denigrate originally meant ‘physically turn something black’ as well as the metaphorical ‘defame, belittle’: ‘This lotion will denigrate the hairs of hoary heads’, Richard Tomlinson, Renodaeus’ Medicinal dispensatory 1657.=> negro, nigger
- denigrate (v.)
- 1520s, from Latin denigratus, past participle of denigrare "to blacken, defame," from de- "completely" (see de-) + nigr-, stem of niger "black" (see Negro). which is of unknown origin. "Apparently disused in 18th c. and revived in 19th c." [OED]. Related: Denigrated; denigrating.
Example
- 1. Koreans denigrate the claim , pointing out that the island has notake , or bamboo , at all .
- 2. I disagree that the solution to ego-based problems is to denigrate , eliminate , or transcend the ego itself .
- 3. This should not be used to denigrate the idea of public service broadcasting .
- 4. Would you yell at a client , denigrate him to others or call him at home at all hours ?
- 5. I don 't want to denigrate their reasons for doing so , but I want people to talk about plant-based nutrition and to think about these ideas in a very empirical scientific sense , and not with an ideological bent to it .