Libelling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The action of damaging someone's reputation by publishing false information about them is known as a specific type of defamation
2. This process involves producing misleading written content aimed at harming an individual's public image
3. The act of maliciously writing disparaging statements with the intent to harm someone's reputation constitutes a form of defamation

Etymology: "Libelling" is the present participle of "libel", so the story belongs to the noun. Latin "libellus" meant "little book" or "booklet", and in Roman legal use it came to mean a formal written petition or accusation submitted to a court or official. The shift to damaging reputation happened because a written accusation, especially a published one, could ruin a person's standing, and the word narrowed toward that sense. The word reached English through Old French "libelle", which kept the same meaning of a written document or lampoon. Its English form in Middle English was "libel", and the modern sense of a damaging published falsehood developed from that legal and satirical background. English also has "libelle" as a doublet, a second form of the same Latin source, though it is the Old French route that gave us the everyday word.

Synonyms: defaming, slandering, maligning, denouncing, disparaging

Antonyms: praising, complimenting, lauding, approving, defending