vilipend

English

Pronunciation

IPA: /'vɪləˌpɛnd/

Etymology

From Middle English vilipenden, from Old French vilipender, from Latin vilipendere, from vilis (“worthless”) + pendere (“to consider, weigh”).

Verb

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

To despise
To express a disparaging opinion of; to slander or vilify.
- 1853, July 10. "Evil Birds", The Colonist (Nelson, New Zealand): p.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, The Nation Company, p.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.