Libelists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who create or distribute false and defamatory statements intended to harm someone's reputation; those who engage in the act of defamation by writing damaging assertions; people responsible for producing written lies that unjustly malign others
2. Persons who compose or spread untrue accusations about others that damage their good name; actors involved in unlawfully publishing injurious statements; those who falsely allege facts in a written form to defame someone
3. Creators of harmful falsehoods presented in writing meant to injure a person's character; individuals participating in the illegal communication of slanderous content; writers who intentionally publish damaging fabrications about others

Etymology: "Libelists" is the plural of "libelist," a formation made by attaching the suffix "-ist" to "libel." The suffix passed into English through a long chain: it descends from a Ancient Greek ending, "-istēs," which was borrowed into Latin as "-ista" and then reached English by way of Old French "-iste" and Middle English "-ist." It marks a person who practises or produces something, so "libelist" is, in effect, one who makes libels. The base word, "libel," is the older and more interesting half. It comes from Latin "libellus," meaning "little book" or "pamphlet," a diminutive of "liber," "book." In that sense the word was entirely neutral, and it was only later that a written work made to injure someone's reputation came to be called a libel. A libelist, then, is literally a maker of such little books, and the connection to written publication is built into the term from the start.

Synonyms: defamers, slanderers, calumniators, maligners, backbiters

Antonyms: praisers, commendators, supporters, defenders, champions