denigrate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to criticize unfairly; to disparage or belittle

   It is unkind to denigrate the efforts of volunteers.

Simplified etymology

Denigrate entered English in the late Middle Ages from a formation based on Latin niger ‘black’. It originally meant ‘to make black or dark in colour’; the figurative sense ‘to blacken someone's reputation’ developed in the early 16th century.

From Latin denigratus, past participle of denigrare ('to blacken'), from de- (intensive) plus nigrare ('to make black'), from niger ('black').

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary