Discommend

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /dɪskəˈmɛnd/

Definitions

1. To express disapproval of someone or something, often publicly or formally
2. To criticize severely or find fault with a person, action, or idea
3. To speak against or show strong objection to something or someone

Etymology: "Discommend" is a plain formation: the prefix "dis-", meaning "apart" or "reversing" in Latin, attached to "commend," which itself comes from Latin "commendare," to entrust or recommend. Combined, the pair turns praise into its opposite, so to discommend someone is to speak against them rather than for them. The prefix carries the sense of reversal through a long chain of borrowings. It passed from Latin into Old French as "des-" and then into Middle English, where "dis-" became a productive element that English speakers could attach to almost any verb. "Commend" entered English through Old French, and by the Middle English period "discommend" was already in use as a natural counterpart to it. Its meaning has stayed fixed at disapproval ever since. Unlike some reversed pairs, the word never drifted into a related sense, so it reads exactly as its parts suggest: a public withdrawal of commendation.

Synonyms: condemn, censure, criticize, denounce, reproach

Antonyms: commend, praise, applaud, endorse, laud