belittle

Contents

EnglishEdit

WOTD – 19 January 2009

EtymologyEdit

From be- +‎ little. Coined by Thomas Jefferson in 1782 in "Notes on the State of Virginia": "So far the Count de Buffon has carried this new theory of the tendency of nature to belittle her productions on this side the Atlantic."

PronunciationEdit

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /bɨˈlɪt.əl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɪtəl

VerbEdit

belittle (third-person singular simple present belittles, present participle belittling, simple past and past participle belittled)

1. To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is.
   • 2006, Mark Steyn, chapter 9, in America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, ISBN 0895260786, page 201:

     Under the rules as understood by the New York Times, the West is free to mock and belittle its Judeo-Christian inheritance, and, likewise, the Muslim world is free to mock and belittle the West's Judeo-Christian inheritance.

Usage notesEdit

Often has a derogatory social connotation. Such as: to treat as worthless, to denigrate, to degrade, to deprecate, or to disparage

Related termsEdit

• belittlement

SynonymsEdit

• understate
• make light of

AntonymsEdit

• exaggerate

TranslationsEdit

to knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is

• Arabic: صَغَّرَ‏‎ (ar) (ṣaḡḡara), اِحْتَقَرَ‏‎ (ar) (iḥtaqara)
• Armenian: նվազեցնել (hy) (nvazecʿnel), պակասեցնել (hy) (pakasecʿnel)
• Bulgarian: омаловажавам (bg) (omalovažavam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 貶低 (zh), 贬低 (zh) (biǎndī), 輕視 (zh), 轻视 (zh) (qīngshì) (to look down on)

• Czech: shazovat, bagatelizovat (cs)
• Dutch: kleineren (nl), afkraken (more destructive)
• Finnish: vähätellä
• French: déprécier (fr), rabaisser (fr)
• Galician: menosprezar (gl)
• German: schmälern (de), herunterspielen (de), herabsetzen (de), klein reden, verniedlichen
• Hungarian: lekicsinyel (hu)

• Italian: sminuire (it)
• Japanese: 矮小化する (waishoka suru), 侮る (ja) (anadoru)
• Macedonian: омаловажува (omalovážuva)
• Maori: tānoa
• Polish: umniejszać (pl), pomniejszać, zmniejszać (pl), lekceważyć (pl), bagatelizować
• Portuguese: depreciar (pt)
• Russian: занижа́ть (ru) impf (zanižátʹ), принижа́ть (ru) impf (prinižátʹ), преуменьша́ть (ru) impf (preumenʹšátʹ), умаля́ть (ru) impf (umaljátʹ), недооце́нивать (ru) impf (nedoocénivatʹ)
• Spanish: menospreciar (es), minimizar (es)
• Swedish: förringa (sv)
• Tagalog: maliit (maliitin)

See alsoEdit

• vilipend