Vilipends

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Shows contempt for someone or something in an insulting way
2. Behaves toward a person or thing with disdain or scorn
3. Expresses a low opinion of someone or something, often in a degrading manner

Etymology: "Vilipend" comes from Late Latin "vilipendere," a compound of "vilis" ("cheap, worthless") and "pendere" ("to weigh" or "to value"), so the word literally means "to weigh as worthless." The idea of weighing something and finding it negligible is at the heart of the sense. English borrowed the verb in the 1600s, when writers were eager to import Latinate vocabulary, and it has stayed a rare, literary word ever since. The "pend" element is the same root found in "pendant," "pending," and "compensate," where the original image is of a scale balancing one thing against another. Latin "pendere" carried the sense of weighing out payment, which is why "appendix" and "expense" share the same ancestry. "Vilipend" keeps that accounting image but turns it toward contempt: the speaker places the object on the scale and judges it worth almost nothing.

Synonyms: disparages, denigrates, belittles, deprecates, ridicules

Antonyms: praises, esteems, admires, applauds, lauds