Attainting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cause someone or something to lose dignity or respect
2. To inflict damage to the reputation or integrity of an individual or group
3. To bring dishonor or stain someone's character by harmful actions or accusations

Etymology: "Attaint" entered English from Old French "ateint", the past participle of "ateindre", meaning "to reach" or "to strike". The original sense was physical: to hit, to touch, or to overtake, and the verb's legal meaning came later, when "attaint" described the condition of a person convicted of a serious crime, whose property and rights were forfeited. The word's modern sense of damaging someone's reputation or integrity grew partly from that legal idea and partly from its close association with "taint". English speakers began to blend the two, so that "attaint" came to suggest a stain on character as well as a formal judgment. Its present participle, "attainting", therefore carries both the sense of striking a blow and the sense of marking someone with disgrace.

Synonyms: damaging, staining, tainting, blemishing, marred

Antonyms: cleansing, purifying, redeeming, restoring, sanitizing