castigate

English edit

WOTD – 17 February 2008

Etymology edit

Early 17th cent., borrowed from Latin castīgātus, past participle of castīgō (“I reprove”), from castus (“pure, chaste”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“cut”).^[1]^[2] Doublet of chastise and chasten, taken through Old French. See also chaste.

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈkæs.tɪ.ɡeɪt/, /ˈkæs.tə.ɡeɪt/
Audio (US) (file)
Audio (AU) (file)

Verb edit

castigate (third-person singular simple present castigates, present participle castigating, simple past and past participle castigated)

(transitive, formal) To punish or reprimand someone severely.
- 1999, Robert P. Gordon, I & II Samuel: A Commentary, Zondervan, page 264:
  Perhaps disarmed by his own scandalous behaviour with Bathsheba, he was in no position to castigate his son for a similar fault.
(transitive, formal) To execrate or condemn something in a harsh manner, especially by public criticism.
- 1573, The Whole Workes of W. Tyndall, Iohn Frith, and Doct. Barnes, Three Worthy Martyrs And Principall Teachers of this Churche of England, Iohn Daye, page 280:
  God doth indurate, when hee doth not by and by caſtigate a ſynner.
- 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 261:
  The curse of avarice and cupidity / Is all my sermon, for it frees the pelf. / Out come the pence, and specially for myself, / For my exclusive purpose is to win / And not at all to castigate their sin.
- 2016, Halil Berktay, Suraiya Faroqhi, New Approaches to State and Peasant in Ottoman History, Routledge, page 150:
  But despite all this, for Barkan, the universalist notion of an 'Ottoman feudalism' was anathema: he castigated this idea as the concentrated expression of the anti-Ottomanism of the Kemalist Enlightenment.
- 2001, Klaus R. Scherer, Angela Schorr, Tom Johnstone, Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research, Oxford University Press, page 59:
  Lewis should have castigated the reasoning employed rather than the emotion, which offers no clue as to which side of the argument a person will adopt.
- 2012, James King, Under Foreign Eyes: Western Cinematic Adaptations of Postwar Japan, John Hunt Publishing, page 1:
  From the outset, this issue becomes an often double-edged sword wherein Japan is both valorized and castigated.
(transitive, rare) To revise or make corrections to a publication.