vilipend

From Middle English vilipenden (“to treat (something) as contemptible”) [and other forms],^[1] from Old French vilipender (modern French vilipender (“to condemn, despise, revile, scorn, vilipend, vilify”)), or its etymon Latin vilipendō, from vīlis (“cheap, inexpensive; base, mean, vile, worthless”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to buy, sell”)) + pendō (“to hang, suspend; to weigh, weigh out; (figuratively) to consider, ponder”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch”)). The English word is cognate with Italian vilipendere (“to despise, scorn, vilipend”), Portuguese vilipendiar (“to vilify”), Spanish vilipendiar (“to vilify”).^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪlɪpɛnd/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪləˌpɛnd/
• Hyphenation: vi‧li‧pend

vilipend (third-person singular simple present vilipends, present participle vilipending, simple past and past participle vilipended)

1. (transitive, dated, formal) To treat (something) as inconsequential or worthless; to despise, to look down on.

   Synonyms: belittle, contemn, misprize, slight

2. (transitive, dated, formal) To express a disparaging opinion of; to slander or vilify.

   Synonyms: abuse, disparage, derogate; see also Thesaurus:defame

   • 1853 July 10, “Evil Birds”, in The Colonist‎^[1], New Zealand: Nelson, page 4:

     But we desire, most unhesitatingly to condemn and vilipend a system of continual abuse, intended to fall upon the provincial Government, but in reality reaching and injuring the public at large.

   • 1917, O. W. Firkins, The Nation‎^[2], The Nation Company, page 176:

     But, for all their feint of nonchalance, these young persons have no other task in life but to explain and extol their own conduct and to vilipend their critics and opponents.

• vilipended (adjective)
• vilipender
• vilipending (adjective, noun)

• vilification
• vilifier
• vilify